“Yeah.” Ricky guffawed. “I think she wants to be Garrick’s personal donor.” All the boys laughed.
“Serena Star is more likely to eat you alive,” Ivy seethed. “You guys better start watching what you say.”
“Can I help it if the bunny ladies love me?” Garrick shrugged. He gestured to the cheerleaders. “For example, look at Charlotte Brown, the star of my movie.”
Ivy spun around to see Charlotte glaring at her and waving her hands. “Get out of the way!” Ivy could imagine her screaming. “You’re blocking my scene!”
Ivy turned back to face the Beasts and found that Dylan was filming again. “You want a wooden stake?” she said with disgust. “Here!” She flung her pencil angrily at Garrick—who shrieked and threw up his arms to shield himself—then spun around and stalked away.
After the game, Olivia and Camilla sat on the school’s front steps, waiting for Olivia’s mom to pick them up. All the TV news vans were gone, and the setting sun cast an orange glow over everything.
“We killed them!” Camilla said happily. “Fortysix to three must be a record. Could you believe it when their lineman ran into the wrong end zone? Maybe our film project should be about embarrassing sports defeats.”
Olivia grinned. “I think the Willowton Badgers have had enough humiliation for one year, without us making a movie about how bad they are.”
Camilla laughed.
“Hey, didn’t you get a new cat?” Olivia asked. “You mean Captain Whiskers?” said Camilla. Olivia nodded. “Maybe we could do something
about him? I could imagine a cool documentary about what the world’s really like for a cat.”
“As far as I can tell,” Camilla said, “it’s mostly sleeping and scratching.”
“Sounds like my uncle Morris,” Olivia joked.
At that moment, her mom pulled up. “Hello, girls!” she called excitedly out the window, as Camilla and Olivia grabbed their bags and dashed down the steps.
“Hi, Mrs. Abbott,” Camilla said, climbing into the back of the car.
“Hey, Mom,” said Olivia, as she slid into the passenger seat.
Olivia’s mom didn’t drive away. Instead, she wiggled her fingers on the steering wheel and looked at Olivia out of the corner of her eye. Suddenly, she held out her hand. “Pinch me!” she said.
Olivia stared at her. “Why?”
“Fine,” Olivia’s mom said. “I’ll pinch myself.” She grabbed a piece of her arm between thumb and forefinger. “Ouch!” she cried. Then she grinned. “It’s not a dream!” she squealed ecstatically.
“Mom,” Olivia said, feeling confused, “what’s going on?”
“My great-aunt Edna died!” her mom replied, clapping with delight.
Oh, my gosh! Olivia thought in shock; she’d never even heard of a Great-aunt Edna before. My mother has lost her mind! She glanced at Camilla, who looked even more confused than Olivia felt, then turned back and said, “And you’re excited about this?”
Her mom gave her a stern look. “Who do you think I am?” she said. “That morbid boy that Serena Star is investigating? Of course I’m not excited about the death of a relative. But Greataunt Edna was one hundred and two! She led an extraordinary life, and I know that it would give her great joy to see me so excited about what she’s left me.”
“She left you something?” Olivia asked. “You mean like an inheritance?”
Camilla stuck her head between the front seats. “What was so extraordinary about Greataunt Edna?” she asked.
Mrs. Abbott gave Olivia a pointed look before turning to Camilla and saying, “Thank you for asking, Camilla.” Then she shifted the car into gear and pulled away from the curb.
“It’s quite a story!” she went on as she drove. “You see, Edna lived in New York City in the nineteen twenties. She was a maid in the household of an Italian duke. The duke was in New York searching for an American wife among the city’s high society. Have you girls ever heard of Napoleon Rochester?”
“Wasn’t he superrich?” Olivia asked.
“Yes,” Camilla said eagerly.
Mrs. Abbott nodded. “The duke was engaged to one of Rochester’s daughters. But then, much to the shock of New York society and the duke’s own family, he suddenly broke off his engagement!”
“Why?” Olivia asked.
“Because,” said her mother, “he was in love with someone else. Someone from more humble origins . . .”
“You mean Great-aunt Edna?” Olivia guessed.
Her mom nodded. “She was only eighteen years old when he whisked her off to Italy,” she said wistfully. “She’d never been more than ten blocks from home before.”
“Wow!” Camilla murmured.
“The duke lavished her with gifts, and they lived happily ever after,” Mrs. Abbott declared cheerfully.
Olivia was impressed. “Did you ever meet her?” she asked.
“Only once,” her mom replied. “When I was about seven and living in Florida, Edna and the duke were touring the Florida Keys and they came to visit Grandma and Grandpa.”
“What was she like?” Camilla asked.
“She was the most glamorous person I’d ever seen,” Olivia’s mom replied. “She had this sparkly jeweled necklace that she let me try on, and I pretended I was a princess. And they ...well, it was clear how much the two of them adored each other.” The car came to a stoplight, and she turned to Olivia. “And that,” her mom finished, “is the story of Great-aunt Edna!”
“She sounds amazing,” Olivia said. “I’m sorry I never got to meet her.”
“Me, too,” her mother told her. “But at least she left me some things that will help us remember her.”
“So what did she leave you?” Olivia asked.
Mrs. Abbott sniffed, and Olivia realized that her mom’s eyes were welling up. “The diamond and ruby necklace that she let me try on as a little girl.”
“No way!” Olivia gasped.
“There’s more.” Her mother smiled, wiping a tear from her cheek with the back of her hand. “She left me a jeweled ostrich-feather fan and a jewelry box with a secret compartment full of love letters written between her and the duke.”