Fashion Frightmare! (My Sister the Vampire)

by Sienna Mercer

  It was a picture of her, wearing a fabulous goth gown – and smiling like she’d just been handed free front-row tickets for a Pall Bearers concert.

  ‘I’ve never smiled that widely in my life!’

  ‘You didn’t,’ Olivia said, biting her bottom lip. ‘That’s a picture from last night . . .’

  ‘So it’s actually you . . .’ Ivy shook her head in wonder. ‘Wow. Even I couldn’t tell the difference.’

  ‘No one else can, either. Everyone who’s seen this picture thinks it’s you. And that’s not all . . .’ Brendan gave an evil chuckle as he swiped his finger across the screen. This time, he brought up the same picture – but with red-and-white lettering under ‘Ivy’s’ smiling face. It read: ‘Shadowtown is back on the air . . . Woo-hoo!’

  ‘What on earth?’ Ivy whispered.

  Brendan swiped his finger across the screen again. This time, the picture came up with the phrase: ‘I can’t believe it – black goes with black!’ One more swipe, and a third version came up: ‘What are you talking about? This is my “solemn” face.’

  Ivy’s head almost fell into her burger. ‘I’ve gone viral?!’

  ‘I doubt it, sweetie,’ Amelia said decisively, looking over her shoulder. ‘I haven’t seen this photo anywhere.’

  ‘I haven’t seen it either!’ Penny added. ‘That means it can’t be all over the internet.’

  ‘Um . . .’ Biting her lip, Ivy shared a look with Brendan.

  The photo might not be up anywhere on the bunny internet . . . but that didn’t mean it wasn’t taking the Vorld Vide Veb by storm! And if there was one thing all vamps found hilarious, it was the idea of ‘happy’, smiley vampires.

  This could be the beginning of something very, very irritating, Ivy realised glumly.

  She might actually wear out her death-squint if this went on!

  There was no time to worry about that now. First things first. She had to reclaim the Vein of Love as soon as possible, no matter what that took.

  After that’s taken care of, then I’m definitely going to put a stake in this viral photo!

  Chapter Six

  The moment that school finally finished for the day, Olivia headed towards the museum with Ivy and Reiko. It was closed to the public until the weekend, while staff cleared up after Café Creative’s opening night, but Olivia and Ivy had begged their bio-dad for a private visit.

  Charles might be firm when he came to his work – but he couldn’t fight his enthusiasm for the past. And Olivia had used all her acting skills to persuade him of how desperate she was to see the artefacts under less stressful circumstances . . .

  Which isn’t actually a lie, Olivia reassured herself now. After all, she really did want to take her time with the artefacts – soon. Today, she had a slightly more important goal!

  Officially, they were on their way to get a special tour from Charles . . . but unofficially, Olivia and Ivy were on a secret mission to put the fake pashmina in place. Olivia knew Ivy was planning to practise her investigative journalism skills this afternoon, by snooping around for any trail the thief might have left for them to follow.

  Speeding up, Olivia overtook Ivy and Reiko to turn the final corner on the way to the museum . . .

  . . . and came to a dead halt as she saw the couple coming straight towards them.

  ‘Alex! Tessa!’ Olivia squeaked. ‘How . . . nice to see you again.’

  Behind her, Ivy let out a muffled groan. Even Reiko lost her athletic balance for once as she hid herself behind Olivia.

  ‘Prince!’ she mumbled, clutching at Olivia’s arms, her voice sounding strangled with panic. ‘Prince . . . Princess . . . Ack!’

  Alex frowned, setting one hand on his wife’s back, as Ivy caught Olivia just in time. ‘Are you girls OK?’

  ‘Yes!’ Olivia said, disentangling herself from Reiko. ‘We’re great. Totally great. And you two look . . . great!’ Great? She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment, wincing. Could I sound any less convincing?

  Every inch of her was aware of the decoy pashmina in Ivy’s bag. It was as if it was shooting out radio signals into the air that screamed: ‘Fake! They’re trying to pass off a fake!’

  Taking a long, deep breath, she opened her eyes again . . . and frowned. Wait a minute.

  Alex and Tessa did not look great at all. In fact, they looked a little . . .

  Spooked, she realised. Uh-oh. She tried not to glance in the direction of Ivy’s bag. She could almost hear the fake pashmina shouting into the air:

  ‘Don’t trust these girls! I’m not your real pashmina!’

  No. Taking hold of herself, Olivia forced the vision aside. There’s no reason they should know about the theft.

  ‘Are you OK?’ Ivy asked the royal couple.

  Alex and Tessa traded a look, and Olivia’s concern deepened. Forgetting the pashmina, she started forward. ‘Something is wrong,’ she said firmly. ‘Please tell us.’

  ‘Well . . .’ Alex sighed, holding Tessa protectively. ‘The truth is . . . our day in Adamstown was not exactly fun.’

  Tessa sighed. ‘It’s true. First, my dress got caught in the doors of the train that took us there – and if I hadn’t had vampire strength, I would have been dragged with it all the way along the platform!’

  Olivia gasped. ‘That’s terrible!’

  Tessa held up the torn skirt of her long, elegant dark green dress. ‘Just look at it! This was my favourite dress.’

  ‘It’s . . . still beautiful,’ Reiko mumbled, with an obvious effort. The words were kind, but from the look on her face, it gave her actual physical pain to speak to such a celebrity.

  ‘At least Tessa wasn’t hurt,’ Alex said. ‘But then things got even worse.’ Looking miserable, he clamped his mouth shut.

  ‘Well?’ Ivy prompted. ‘What happened next?’

  Tessa patted Alex’s arm soothingly. ‘The restaurant we had lunch at served us medium-rare steaks.’ She winced. ‘Alex almost broke through the wall to get to the restroom.’

  ‘Ouch!’ said Ivy.

  Reiko made a sympathetic face. ‘I hate it when that happens!’

  Poor Alex! Olivia thought, seeing the usually dashing prince looking mortified – quietly and stoically mortified, of course, but still mortified.

  ‘Anyway,’ he mumbled, ‘we thought it was time to give up on our day out. So we –’

  Caw! Caw!

  Out of nowhere, a crow appeared in the air above them. As Olivia stared in shock, it dived down to flap crazily around Alex and Tessa’s heads.

  The newlyweds ducked, throwing up their arms in self-defence.

  ‘Shoo!’ Ivy yelled, starting forward and waving her arms. ‘Go away!’

  But the bird followed after Alex and Tessa, cawing louder. They both spun to try to escape it – and Alex’s leg caught in Tessa’s torn skirt. Her arm windmilled as she searched for balance . . . and their heads crashed straight into each other.

  The royal couple fell to the ground in a tangled heap, while the bird wheeled away with one last caw!

  ‘Are you OK?’ Striding forward gracefully, Reiko reached them first.

  Ivy and Olivia were right behind her, all of them helping the stunned couple to their feet. As Tessa dusted down her dress, she gave a shaky laugh.

  ‘If I didn’t know better,’ she said, ‘I’d think this trip was cursed!’

  Oh, no. Olivia didn’t dare look at Ivy . . . or the bag with the fake pashmina inside.

  ‘You’re probably just imagining it,’ Ivy said. Her voice sounded strangled.

  ‘It’s true,’ Olivia added quickly. ‘Jet-lag can do weird things to people. Trust me – I’ve been flying around so much these last few months, I’m not entirely sure this isn’t just a really strange dream!’

  Ivy gave an unconvincing chuckle. ‘That would make it your fault I’m living a hell as a Vorld-Vide-Veb-joke, huh?’

  Alex clapped one hand over his mouth, but his snicker escaped anyway. Tessa let out a muffled snort.

/>   ‘Oh, no . . .’ Ivy stared at them. ‘Are you telling me that even you guys have seen it?’

  ‘Um . . .’ Tessa pressed her lips together, but her eyes were sparkling with suppressed laughter.

  ‘Well,’ Alex said, ‘I wouldn’t say we’ve seen all the different versions online yet . . .’

  ‘But there are so many,’ Tessa said apologetically, ‘they’re just very hard to miss!’

  ‘And there are some really good ones,’ Alex added. His grin broke through as he dug his smartphone out of his pocket. ‘Here, I bookmarked my favourite.’ He held out the phone, and Olivia, Reiko and Ivy peered at it together.

  Yet again, they looked at ‘Ivy’s’ beaming face above her goth gown . . . and this time, the caption read: ‘Half-price Marshmallow Platelets . . . Oh yeah!’

  Ivy groaned. ‘I can’t take many more of these!’

  ‘OK.’ Still smiling, Alex slid the phone back into his pocket. ‘But anyway . . . if you guys are going to the museum, maybe we could tag along?’

  ‘Oh, yes!’ Tessa nodded enthusiastically. ‘We need to do something fun to improve the day. And I’d love to see my pashmina hanging up there!’

  Uh-oh. Olivia felt Ivy’s arm stiffen under her hand. She thought fast. ‘Erm . . . we’re not actually going to the museum right now.’

  ‘Really?’ Alex blinked, looking from Olivia to the museum’s front door, only fifteen feet away. ‘But –’

  ‘It’s locked up!’ Ivy said hastily. ‘Until this weekend. And Albert would never let us in out-of-hours!’

  Tessa frowned. ‘Who’s Albert?’

  ‘The caretaker,’ Olivia explained. ‘You must have seen him last night, or when you visited the museum before. You know, the vampire who always wears jogging outfits?’

  ‘Sorry,’ said Ivy, doing her best sad-face. ‘The museum is definitely off-limits today.’

  ‘Oh, that’s right, I just remembered!’ Reiko chimed in. ‘Perhaps we should go and catch a game instead?’

  Ivy looked like she was preparing her death-squint, so Olivia stepped in. ‘I think we could all do with something to eat.’ She clapped her hands decisively. ‘Come on. Let’s go to . . . Mister Smoothie’s!’

  Ivy’s death-squint was immediately turned on Olivia, but she ignored it.

  ‘Mister . . . Smoothie’s?’ Tessa’s brow crinkled in a frown. ‘Is that some kind of café?’

  ‘You’ll love it,’ Olivia told her, trying to sound breezy. And it’s on the other side of town – far away from the museum. ‘It’s just what you need to turn your day around.’

  Why could I only think of Mister Smoothie’s? It’s like a vampire’s worst nightmare! She didn’t need Ivy’s glare to tell her this was a bad idea . . .

  Chapter Seven

  Well, I knew that was a bad idea . . .

  As Ivy pulled on her backpack the next morning, she sniffed the ends of her long hair – and groaned. Yup. She could still smell the peach-and-blood-orange smoothie. It just won’t go away! Even two rounds of shampoo last night hadn’t been enough to remove the evidence of yesterday’s . . . incident.

  I don’t care how much the bunnies like them, smoothies are dangerous!

  Olivia had spent the whole journey there telling Alex and Tessa exactly how delicious their smoothies would be. By the time they’d arrived, Tessa really seemed to have forgotten how excited she’d been about the museum. And – typically for Transylvanian vamps! – she and Alex had taken the business of ordering very seriously. It had taken ages for them both to select exactly the right flavours.

  Unfortunately, when the Mister Smoothie’s clerk was putting those two particular orders on to the counter, she lost her balance and had somehow managed to drop them . . . upwards!

  The cups had arced and fallen, peach and raspberry and blueberry smoothie mingling into a crazy rainbow . . . and with a line of customers waiting behind them, there had been no way for Tessa or Alex to escape.

  The entire group had been splashed.

  Ivy recalled the horror on the shop clerk’s face as she’d stared at the sopping wet, smoothie-covered prince and princess, offering apologies, free replacements . . . and lots of towels.

  She couldn’t have been more obviously sincere, but when Tessa had told her it was OK, Ivy had definitely detected a note of panic in the princess’s voice.

  Tessa might be one of the most easy-going people Ivy knew, but it was obvious that her string of bad luck was starting to seriously rattle her. If she finds out that the pashmina’s been stolen, she might just have a nervous breakdown!

  Ivy had to track down the thief before that could happen.

  Sighing, she headed out the front door towards the bus stop on Undertaker Hill. Reiko was already waiting there, her hair dyed in contrasting streaks of black and white, matching the soccer ball she was juggling between her feet and knees.

  ‘Wow.’ Ivy shook her head in disbelief as she joined the exchange student. ‘Did you actually buy that just for the next week and a half ?’

  Still juggling the ball, Reiko gave a shrug. ‘I was bored.’

  ‘Bored?!’ Ivy repeated. ‘You’ve won doubles tennis and starred in a fashion show. Now we’re dealing with a stolen treasure, a thief to hunt, and a string of terrible luck for Alex and Tessa! How much more drama do you need?’

  ‘Well . . .’ Reiko looked thoughtful, as the bus chugged down the street towards them. ‘I still haven’t made it to a real sports game.’

  Unbelievable. Shaking her head, Ivy stepped on to the school bus without another word.

  The second they stepped out of the bus at Franklin Grove High, Reiko’s soccer ball was back in action, bouncing off her knees and feet in a stream of constant motion. Bunnies and goths alike stopped to stare as they passed, the constant thump-thump-thump hammering into Ivy’s skull as they walked into the building.

  Does she ever stop? Ivy gritted her teeth. Pretend it isn’t happening, she ordered herself . . . but she couldn’t do it. She couldn’t even look away from the rocketing soccer ball until –

  ‘Hey! Watch out!’ A goth senior stepped back, rubbing his shoulder where Ivy had just crashed into him.

  ‘Sorry,’ she mumbled. She forced herself to turn her gaze ahead, but all she could focus on was the soccer ball bouncing in the corner of her vision. At any minute, it was definitely going to hit someone, or –

  ‘Ow!’ A hefty, muscled football player let out a yelp of pain as Ivy’s shoulder banged into his arm. He backed away, massaging it. ‘Watch where you’re going!’

  Great. Now I’m the menace in this hallway!

  Blowing out her breath in frustration, Ivy came to a halt in front of her locker; beside her, Reiko still juggled the ball. It bounced off the closest locker again and again, with a dull metallic clang each time. Thump-bang! Thump-bang! Thump-bang!

  Ivy started to reach into her locker for her textbooks – then stopped. I can’t even remember which classes I have this morning! This is crazy. Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes and tried to focus. OK, today was a Friday, and that meant . . .

  Thump-bang!

  That meant her first-period class should be –

  Thump-bang!

  ‘Oh, for darkness’ sake!’ Ivy spun around, her eyes flaring wide open. ‘Can you please just stop that for five seconds to let me think?’

  Reiko caught the ball in her hands, the shock on her face making guilt surge through Ivy.

  ‘Is something wrong?’ Reiko asked.

  ‘It’s . . .’ Ivy sighed, fighting back her frustration. ‘It’s just, the sound of that ball over and over again . . . well, it’s starting to get to me a little bit. I’ve got a lot on my mind.’

  ‘Sorry.’ Reiko shrugged, jiggling the ball in her hands. ‘This is just how I get when I have energy to burn off.’

  ‘You have energy to “burn off ”?’ Ivy let out a half-laugh of disbelief. She lowered her voice to a whisper as she pulled out her English textbook from her locker. ‘It’s
first-thing on a Friday. Most vamps our age are so tired right now they can’t wait to get back to their coffins and go to sleep again. And considering you haven’t stayed still for a single second since you got here –’

  ‘Well . . .’ Reiko blinked, stepping back an inch. ‘I don’t mean to annoy anybody with my energy, but . . . I told you, I’m kind of bored. This trip hasn’t been quite what I was hoping for.’ She shrugged. ‘You haven’t exactly been the most enthusiastic of hostesses . . .’

  ‘Are you kidding?’ Ivy slammed her locker shut. ‘Have you not noticed that I have a bit of a crisis going on? I’m sorry if I haven’t played as much tennis or soccer as you would have liked, but we do have a few more important issues to worry about!’

  Reiko shrugged and spun the soccer ball on one finger. ‘You do remember you’re a teenager, right? Occasionally, it is OK for you to do what you think would be fun.’

  ‘Well, that would never involve sports,’ Ivy snapped.

  Reiko’s eyebrows shot upwards. She closed her mouth tightly as she caught the soccer ball.

  Silence grew between them . . . and Ivy heard her own words repeated in an endless, horrible loop in her head. Shame swept in a hot wave through her body, making her skin burn. ‘I’m sorry,’ she mumbled. ‘I didn’t mean –’

  ‘Forget it.’ Reiko tucked the ball under her arm. Suddenly, she looked as subdued and serious as Ivy could ever have wished . . . and she turned away without meeting Ivy’s gaze. ‘I’ll see you in class,’ she said.

  She set off in the direction of their English class, leaving Ivy staring miserably after her and wondering how she could have made things so much worse.

  Only the sound of her cell phone beeping in her backpack forced her to look away from Reiko’s retreating back. Sighing, Ivy pulled out the phone.

  It was a text from Sophia: So, how is the Queen of the Vorld Vide Veb doing? I think I’m missing all the fun!

  Ha. Ivy shook her head as she tucked the phone back into her backpack.

  Sophia might be missing home, but right now she certainly wasn’t missing any ‘fun’!

  Ivy slung her backpack over her shoulder and started for class with heavy feet. When she walked into the room, she came to a dead halt. Her usual seat at the front of the room was free, as was the seat next to her – where Reiko had been sitting all week . . . but today, Reiko sat in the far back corner of the room, and she looked straight ahead, pointedly refusing to notice Ivy coming in.