“And you getting sick from Camilla’s lasagna?” Olivia prompted.
“Was a bit more than an allergic reaction,” Ivy admitted.
“You’re really serious,” Olivia breathed in amazement.
“Completely,” Ivy confirmed.
For a moment, Olivia said nothing. Then she gave a queasy smile. “I am so glad I didn’t have any cherry punch at the ball meeting.”
Ivy couldn’t help laughing. “Pretty killer secret, huh?” she said.
“Totally,” Olivia croaked.
Ivy touched her sister’s arm. “Olivia, by telling you this, I’ve broken the First Law of the Night. A vampire is never supposed to reveal her true self to an outsider. I could get into serious trouble if anybody ever finds out that I have”—Ivy paused—“and you could, too.”
Olivia nodded bravely. “I won’t tell,” she said. Then a weird look crossed her face.
“Are you freaked out?” Ivy asked.
“If we’re twins,” Olivia said slowly, “does that mean that I’m a vampire?”
Ivy had been asking herself that question for a week. She shook her head. “There’s no way, Olivia. You love garlic; you have normal skin; you have regular blue eyes; and, on top of it all, you’re a vegetarian! You’re the least vampy person on earth.”
“But you’re still sure we’re twins, right?” Olivia asked.
“Absolutely,” Ivy said. “I won’t pretend to understand it, but I know I’m a vampire and you’re a bunny. We just happen to also be identical twins.”
“So that’s what a bunny is,” Olivia murmured distractedly.
This is a lot for Olivia to take in all at once , Ivy realized. “Maybe now that you know,” she said, “swapping places isn’t such a good idea. Maybe you shouldn’t go to any more ball meetings. I’ll do it. You focus on cheering.”
Olivia shook her head. “No,” she said firmly, “I can do it. I promised you.” Suddenly, her eyes rested on Ivy’s mouth. Olivia bent her head down a little, and Ivy thought for a second that her sister was trying to look up her nose. Then Ivy realized that wasn’t what Olivia was doing at all.
“Are you looking for fangs?” Ivy demanded. Olivia smiled sheepishly. “Maybe.”
Ivy rolled her eyes. “We get our incisors filed
down. And just so you know,” she added, “my face never gets gross and bumpy like the ‘vampires’ on Buffy.”
Olivia nodded thoughtfully.
She needs time to get used to this, Ivy thought. “I think we’re done cheering for today,” she said aloud.
“But we only just started,” Olivia protested halfheartedly.
“It’s okay,” Ivy said. “Really. I’m ready for tomorrow. I have the moves. I can shout. I can even smile. You said it yourself.”
Olivia’s eyes flickered uncertainly.
“Are you sure you still want to go through with it?” Ivy asked.
Her sister grinned. “Are you worried I’ll freak out in front of all your friends?”
“A little,” Ivy admitted.
Olivia looked her in the eye. “Trust me,” she said. “I can handle it.” They hugged. “After all, you know what they say,” Olivia continued. “Blood is thicker than water.”
Ivy couldn’t resist. “And better tasting, too!”
Chapter 10
In math the next morning, Mr. Langel stood in front of the board, telling the class how to calculate a rectangle’s area. He started doing an impression of the Count from Sesame Street. “One! Ha-ha-ha!” he declared, smiling.
But Olivia couldn’t roll her eyes as she usually did at Mr. Langel’s sense of humor. Could he be a vampire? she wondered, looking at him suspiciously. After all, his hairline descended into what her mom called a widow’s peak—a point in the center of his forehead—which made him look vaguely vampiric. Olivia wondered what color his eyes really were. She pictured him climbing out of a coffin earlier that morning, pajamas still on.
Then she realized that if her goofy math teacher could be a vampire, anyone could! She turned her attention to a stocky Goth boy with an earring and spiky hair sitting at a nearby desk. His hand rested next to his notebook, and there was a leering skull-and-crossbones ring on his pinky. Now that she thought about it, Olivia realized that she’d never seen him open his mouth. Was it because he hadn’t had his fangs filed?
She could deal with her sister being a vampire, because she knew Ivy would never do anything to hurt her. It was all the other vampires at Franklin Grove Middle School that Olivia was suddenly worried about. She surreptitiously counted the number of other students in the class: twenty-one possible vampires. She pulled her cardigan more tightly around herself.
What about the cheerleaders? she wondered. Nobody said a vampire couldn’t wear pink. Besides, if anyone had some evil in her, it was Charlotte Brown. Now I’m being ridiculous, Olivia told herself. No way is Charlotte cool enough to be a vampire!
She looked down at her blank paper and wrote, “VAMPIRES DO NOT EAT BUNNIES” ten times without stopping. It sort of helped, except that, when she was done, she realized she’d missed out on how to calculate the area of a trapezoid.
By the end of class, Olivia was obsessing about the ball planning meeting after school. Everyone was nice to Ivy, but what if they discovered she was an impostor? What if they found out that she knew their secret? Ivy had said there could be trouble....
Quickly Olivia tried to think of some sort of protection she could take with her, just in case. She had a nearly empty nail polish bottle in her purse. She thought maybe she could empty it and then fill it with holy water. But, then, what if that was a myth, too? And where was she going to get holy water, anyway? Would a pencil count as a stake? she asked herself. She did have two of those in her purse. Garlic! she thought suddenly. At least she knew that wasn’t a myth.
At lunch, Olivia was hoping for a garlic infused daily special, but no luck. The specials board announced that today it was crab salad, and as Olivia read it something clicked inside her head. I get it! she thought. Vampires are just different kinds of humans, just like crabs and lobsters are different kinds of crustaceans! They’re pretty much the same thing: one big happy crustacean family! And from then on, Olivia felt much better.