Читать книгу Spooktacular! - Sienna Mercer - Страница 6

Olivia Abbott was sitting next to her identical twin on the school bus, trying to memorise new lines for her upcoming movie, when she suddenly heard a squeal of excitement from across the aisle.

‘Ooh, Olivia and Ivy, look at this!’ Waving a magazine in the air, their friend Reiko reached over to nudge Olivia’s shoulder. But from the super-strong pink-haired vampire exchange student, the “nudge” felt more like a shove.

‘Careful!’ laughed Ivy, as Olivia bounced off her shoulder. She looked over her twin’s head at Reiko. ‘What’s up?’

‘My horoscope!’ Beaming, Reiko held up the teen magazine that she’d been reading. ‘We don’t get this magazine back in Japan. This is fangtastic!’

‘Oh, honestly!’ Ivy rolled her eyes. Unlike Reiko, who was dressed in eye-wateringly neon athletic gear, Ivy was a typical American vampire goth. Black kohl lined her eyes, and her long black hair streamed over the shoulders of her lacy black sweater. Slim black trousers and big black boots completed her ensemble, making her look even fiercer as she crossed her arms over her chest. ‘You don’t really believe in horoscopes, do you?’

‘Well . . .’ Reiko shrugged, her high ponytail bouncing above her lime-green tank top. ‘Maybe not, but it’s still fun to read them, isn’t it? I love all the spooky warnings and weird pieces of advice. Check out yours!’ She folded back the cover of the magazine, pointing at the page she was reading. ‘“Do not be confused by the mirror from the past. Listen for the wailing winds of memory”.’

‘“The wailing winds of memory”?’ Olivia repeated. She scrunched her eyebrows together in thought as she twitched her rumpled silver skirt and pale pink sweater back into place. ‘What could that mean?’

‘It doesn’t mean anything,’ Ivy told her. ‘Horoscopes are just superstition.’

‘Maybe you’re right,’ Olivia said, ‘but personally . . .’ She gave her twin a meaningful grin. ‘I’ve learned not to be too certain about anything these days.’

After all, there had been a time, not that long ago, when she thought the whole idea of vampires was “superstition”. Now here she was, riding between two of them on her way to a traditional vampire celebration!

A lot of things had changed in the last year.

The bus was already slowing to a stop on Undertaker Hill, where Ivy lived with the twins’ vampire bio-dad and step-mom. Olivia waited in the aisle as Ivy wrestled out a mysterious cardboard box that she had wedged under their seat when they first got on.

‘Come on,’ Olivia said as her twin finally straightened, holding the lid of the box firmly closed. ‘Aren’t you even going to give us a peek of what’s inside that thing?’

‘No way!’ Ivy shook her head and started towards the door of the bus. Reiko followed right behind, the tennis racquet that was sticking out at a dangerous angle from her massive orange backpack nearly banging into Olivia. But even as Olivia hopped back to escape a concussion, she heard Ivy say: ‘Trust me. You, of all people, do not want to see what’s in this box! It’s a Moonrise gift for Dad.’

Hmmm. It was the day before Halloween and they were on their way to the Vega house for the traditional vampire celebration of Moonrise. Olivia was pretty sure her sister was just trying to gross her out. Well, joke’s on you, twin. I’m not icked out by vampy things. Well, not as much as I used to be . . .

She got out of the bus, and had to lurch backwards again to avoid bumping into Ivy, who had come to a sudden dead halt on the street.

‘Oh no,’ Ivy moaned, ‘look who’s heading straight for us!’

Reiko swung around. ‘Who?’

As Olivia looked past the exchange student, she had to muffle a sigh of her own. Reiko might not recognise the pretty, preppy girl walking towards them – but for Olivia, the sight was all too familiar. ‘It’s Charlotte Brown,’ she told Reiko. ‘From our old middle school.’ And this is the worst possible time to meet her! Olivia hoped that Charlotte wouldn’t get nosy about what was in Ivy’s box. If there really is something super vampy in there, we can’t let Charlotte see it! Olivia might not bat an eyelid at vampy things these days, but Charlotte definitely would!

And they couldn’t risk Charlotte seeing anything that would make her suspicious. That would break the most important rule in the vampire world – that no non-vamps, or “bunnies” as they were known, could ever be allowed to discover that vampires really existed. As far as Olivia was aware, she was the only bunny in the world to know about the vamps, and only because she happened to be the identical twin sister of one!

‘Hey, guys!’ Charlotte beamed as she walked towards them. ‘How are you? Looking forward to the party tomorrow?’

‘Of course!’ Olivia said brightly, still not used to the fact that the formerly mean head cheerleader was now one of the friendliest people she knew. ‘We can’t wait. We just know Camilla’s going to give Café Creative the best Haunted House party ever!’

Charlotte gave a squeal of excitement as she clapped her hands together. ‘Has Camilla given you any clues about what she’s planned for it? She won’t tell me anything!’

‘You know Camilla . . .’ Olivia shrugged, smiling.

Olivia’s best friend, Camilla Edmunson, had taken charge of planning the first-ever Halloween party at Café Creative, the joint café and creative centre at the Franklin Grove Museum. And Camilla always went all-out on every project.

‘She’s keeping the details secret,’ Olivia said, ‘but everyone’s talking about it. I’m sure it’s going to be fabulous.’

‘Of course it will! The school play she directed last year was really . . . memorable.’

Olivia’s felt her cheeks flush, even as a smile tugged at her lips. It was certainly memorable for me. She’d had her first kiss onstage in Romezog and Julietron. Even better, it had been with her amazing movie-star boyfriend, Jackson Caulfield.

Charlotte was frowning, though, as she leaned forwards, dropping her voice to a whisper. ‘To be honest, I’m just worried that the party might get too scary for me. Some of the rumours I’ve heard . . . well, do you think they’re true? Would Camilla really create remote-controlled zombies?’

‘Cool!’ said Reiko, perking up.

‘No!’ said Ivy, rolling her eyes. ‘Camilla’s sure to give us all a few scares tomorrow, but she’s not Doctor Frankenstein.’

‘Whew.’ Charlotte smiled and stepped back.

Reiko slumped. ‘Too bad. Do you think there’ll at least be a Frankenstein at the party, though?’

Ivy raised one eyebrow. ‘Frankenstein’s monster, you mean? Because you know, Frankenstein himself was –’

‘I don’t want to hear about it!’ Charlotte said firmly. ‘I’m already starting to feel S-I-A!’

Did anyone else understand that? Olivia turned to Ivy and Reiko, but they both shook their heads.

‘S-I-what?’ said Olivia.

Charlotte smiled proudly. ‘I made it up myself,’ she explained. ‘Scared-In-Advance. Get it?’

‘Um . . . OK,’ Olivia mumbled. Somehow, I doubt that is going to catch on any time soon.

Ivy coughed, starting to edge away. ‘You know, we really need to hurry home, so . . .’

‘Oh, sure, of course!’ Charlotte bounced on her toes. ‘But I’m just curious – what’s in that box?’

Uh-oh, Olivia thought, desperately trying to think of a way of distracting Charlotte. But before she could, her twin sister piped up.

‘Well actually, it’s the reason we need to hurry. Really hurry,’ Ivy said, ‘because it’s my Biology homework . . .’ She raised the cardboard box and nodded meaningfully at the thin trail of red that was starting to trickle out of one bottom corner. ‘. . . and it could start getting really smelly, really soon. Trust me, you do not want to be here when that happens!’

‘Eughh!’ Charlotte lurched backwards, staring at the bright red droplets. ‘Is that . . . blood?’

Ivy stepped closer, cracking open the lid of the box as she lifted it towards Charlotte’s face. ‘Do you want to see it before I finish dissecting it?’

‘No!’ Charlotte stumbled back, staring in horror at the leaking red ooze. ‘Actually, I . . . I think I’ll just . . . see you guys at the party tomorrow! Bye!’ She swallowed visibly, her face turning a sickly green as she spun around and hurried away. ‘I am so glad I don’t go to Franklin Grove High,’ they heard her mumble. ‘At least at my school, the homework is hygienic!’

Reiko clapped one hand to her mouth, barely muffling her laughter. Olivia waited until Charlotte was definitely out of hearing range before she turned to her twin, eyebrows raised. ‘OK,’ she said. ‘You didn’t actually bring a dissection as a Moonrise present for our dad . . . did you?’

‘Sadly, no,’ Ivy mocked disappointment. ‘This was an assignment for Home Ec., not Biology. But I have to warn you, it’s actually even scarier-looking than a dissection. There’s no way I could have let Charlotte get a peek at it. See?’ She lifted the lid of the box.

Olivia peered in – and giggled. Inside was the most lopsided mess of a cake she’d ever seen. Red jam was oozing everywhere.

Reiko lowered her hand and finally let her laughter tumble out. ‘I think you need to put that cake out of its misery!’

Ivy shrugged. ‘So I’m not the best baker in my family. Luckily, Dad is. Let’s go celebrate Moonrise!’

Closing the lid of the cake box, she hurried up the steep hill to the Vegas’ house, with Reiko close behind. Olivia followed, waiting for tension to fill her chest, for tingles of dread to flood her belly at the prospect of what their dad had planned for Moonrise.

Ivy opened the front door, which creaked loudly and ominously, and still Olivia waited for the moment she would feel officially creeped out. But it didn’t come.

Am I . . . used to spookiness now?

As she stepped inside after her twin and Reiko, she took in a new, blood-red rug that lined the hallway. Her bio-dad, Charles Vega, usually decorated the house in classy shades of black and cream, but this rug’s garish pattern of coffins and gravestones was definitely not part of that scheme.

It should have been spooky, but the only thing Olivia found “scary” about the rug was that it reminded her of the really frightening thing that was going on in her life right now: Eternal Sunset, the epic vampire romance movie she was shooting with her boyfriend Jackson. The latest rewrites were in, and that meant lots of new lines to learn, in a very short amount of time.

Fluffing my lines and looking like an idiot in front of our director: now that’s scary! she told herself as she followed the others into the house. She closed the door behind her . . . and a blood-curdling shriek sounded from the kitchen.

What the . . .? Olivia’s heart pounded in her chest as she headed towards the sound of the scream.

‘Hey, give it back!’ As the girls hurried into the kitchen, Olivia and Ivy’s step-mom lunged forwards, grabbing for the bowl of cranberry sauce in her husband’s hands. Lillian was usually the picture of flawless elegance, but today her sleek black dress was spattered with stains, and more crimson streaks covered her neck and face. ‘I want to do the last step by myself!’

‘Don’t you dare!’ Charles skipped backwards, his own tailored black suit just as dirty as Lillian’s dress. He clutched the bowl to his chest with one hand while he flicked another messy handful of cranberry sauce at his wife. ‘Back off! It’s mine. You can have your turn next year!’

‘Ugh!’ With a cry of frustration, Lillian shook her sauce-covered hands at him, showering his whole outfit with globs of cranberry.

Seriously? Olivia turned to Ivy and Reiko in wide-eyed wonder, her heart rate gradually returning to normal. Are you seeing this, too?

Ivy only shrugged, grinning. ‘Things get a little different when it’s Moonrise,’ she whispered.

I’ll say! Olivia thought. She giggled as she spotted a blood-red dot of cranberry sauce directly between her bio-dad’s eyes. Of all the unlikely things in the world, she could never have imagined her super-formal bio-dad having a cranberry-sauce fight with his wife!

‘Girls!’ Charles looked up, finally taking notice of them. ‘Oh, good, you’re here just in time to see me finish off my perfect cranberry sauce.’

‘Ohhh!’ Lillian cast up her eyes in comic despair and turned away. ‘I give up! You finish off the sauce. I’m going to prep the red velvet cake. Happy Moonrise, girls!’

‘Happy Moonrise!’ Olivia chorused right along with Ivy and Reiko.

Charles beamed as he began to stir the sauce. ‘And now, just as we do every year, it’s time to remember why this tradition was created in the first place.’

‘How old is it, really?’ Olivia asked, taking a seat at one of the tall stools by the breakfast bar.

Reiko sat down across from her, pulling out a tennis ball from her backpack and bouncing it from knee to knee as she listened.

‘Moonrise? Oh, it’s ancient!’ Lillian answered, her voice muffled as she knelt down in front of the refrigerator to rummage through it.

‘It is a very old vampire tradition,’ Charles agreed, ‘or at least . . . well, it’s a very old American vampire tradition, anyway. I doubt it would ever happen back home.’

‘Of course not.’ Ivy rolled her eyes as she sat down next to Olivia. ‘Transylvanian vampires are way too snooty for Moonrise.’

‘Not Japanese vamps,’ Reiko said cheerfully. ‘We celebrate our own version of Moonrise, too. And I’ve heard that in Kenya . . .’

‘Ahem.’ Charles fixed both girls with a stern look. It might have been more intimidating if half of his black hair hadn’t been standing upright, the other half slicked back and sticky with cranberry sauce. ‘As I was saying . . . Moonrise is usually held on October 31^st, the same day as Halloween. For bunnies, that date marks the end of the harvest season; for vampires, it signals the shift in power, when the moon dominates the day more than the sun.’

‘But . . .’ Olivia frowned. ‘Real vampires don’t need the moon. They can go out in the daytime just fine.’

‘Of course we can.’ Charles gave her a mischievous grin. ‘But then, humans don’t need to hunt Easter eggs or go trick-or-treating, do they? But they do it for fun.’

‘And that’s what Moonrise is all about,’ Ivy said, bumping Olivia with her shoulder. ‘Fun!’

Charles finished stirring the sauce and set his spoon aside. ‘For obvious reasons, we’ve chosen to host our Moonrise get-together a day early this year. I knew you three wouldn’t want to miss tomorrow’s haunted house party.’

‘Hey, it’s not just them!’ Lillian poked her head back out of the fridge for a moment, exposing her cranberry-stained cheeks. ‘I’m looking forward to the party, too! I am still in charge of Café Creative, you know.’

‘Not when it comes to this party,’ Ivy told her. ‘Tomorrow, it’s Commander Camilla all the way!’

‘Good point,’ Lillian chuckled, ducking back into the fridge. ‘I think you girls will be in for a treat – for a bunny, Camilla sure knows her way around a good scare!’

‘Never mind. Tonight is all about Moonrise.’ Charles opened a high cupboard and pulled out three coffin-shaped boxes: one black, one bright orange and one pale pink. ‘One for each of you this year!’ he said.

‘Let me take a wild guess.’ Olivia gave her bio-dad a teasing smile. ‘Mine’s the pink one?’

‘Who else?’ Ivy said, grinning. She grabbed the black box and pulled it open. ‘Ooh!’ A tombstone-shaped grey cookie lay inside, surrounded by a dusting of chocolate. ‘It looks just like it’s covered in dirt from a graveyard,’ she said happily. ‘Perfect!’

Reiko let out a delighted giggle when she opened her bright orange coffin. ‘I love it!’ She pulled out a little liquorice bat.

Is that actually . . . wriggling? Olivia laughed as Reiko popped a bat wing into her mouth.

The doorbell rang, and Ivy slid off her stool. ‘I’ll get that. But go ahead and open yours, sis!’

‘OK.’ Olivia saw her bio-dad’s eager gaze, and wondered what kind of vampy gift went well with a pink coffin.

Of course, she thought, as she opened the box and saw the pink candy heart waiting inside. But it wasn’t a regular candy heart. This candy heart was shaped like a real heart – with valves and everything!

Seriously? Olivia giggled, and then had to stop herself from shaking her head in disbelief – not at the gift, but at herself. There was a time when this candy treat would have sent her running all the way home. But now, she was laughing in absolute delight!

She looked up at her bio-dad. A year ago, she’d barely known him. Now, he’d gone out of his way to try to choose the perfect gift for his human daughter. How could she not be touched?

She opened her mouth to thank him . . . but before she could say a single word, another ear-piercing scream ripped through the air.

It was coming from the hallway.

Ivy couldn’t help shrieking at the sight before her. Am I seeing things? she wondered.

Standing in the front doorway was a girl wearing a fitted black jacket, long, narrow scarf, pencil skirt and high-heeled boots. Her black hair was longer than when Ivy had last seen it, the very tips still pixie-blonde from a rebellious dye-job the month before. ‘I can’t believe you’re here!’ Ivy cried. She threw her arms around her fashionista best friend, Sophia. ‘Aren’t you supposed to still be in Japan, finishing up your exchange programme? Reiko isn’t flying back till next week.’

Sophia hugged her back tightly, and Ivy caught a whiff of an exotic new perfume. ‘My parents decided they didn’t want me away from home on Moonrise.’

‘Yeah, right.’ Grinning, Ivy released her friend and closed the front door to keep out the chilly late-October air. ‘Come on, admit it. You were just too homesick to stay away!’

‘Well, obviously.’ Sophia rolled her eyes as she started towards the kitchen. ‘Japan was just soooo boring, what with all its incredible sights, cool people and amazing fashion . . . how could I not want to get back to sleepy little Franklin Grove as quickly as possible?’

‘Ha!’ Following Sophia into the kitchen, Ivy was still laughing at her friend’s comeback even as Olivia let out a delighted shriek of her own.

‘Sophia!’ Olivia jumped off her stool to hug the new arrival. ‘Welcome home!’

As Reiko stood up too, Ivy gestured towards her. ‘Oh, and I should introduce . . .’

‘No, I’ve got this.’ Smiling, Sophia turned to Reiko. ‘Hajimemashite,’ she said. ‘Watashi wa Sophia to moushimasu.’

Reiko beamed. ‘Reiko desu. Yoroshiku!’

‘Wow.’ Ivy blinked at her best friend. ‘You really have learned Japanese!’

Sophia winced. ‘Well, I’m not that good . . .’

‘You’re great!’ Reiko insisted.

‘You have to tell us all about your trip, Sophia,’ Lillian said, pulling out a stool for Sophia to sit on.

‘Tell us about the food . . .’ Charles licked his lips as he put cling film over his bowl of cranberry sauce. ‘It’s been so long since I’ve had any decent udon noodles!’

‘Well, I want to hear about what you saw,’ Olivia said. ‘Tell me all about the fashion!’

‘And the movies!’ Lillian added. ‘Can you believe the new Koizumi film won’t be released here until January? You have to tell me all about it!’

Reiko shook her head. ‘Before anything else, I need to know . . .’ She fixed Sophia with an intent gaze. ‘ . . . is my friend Megumi still dating that creep Tetsuo?’

A smile played over Sophia’s lips as she leaned closer to Reiko. ‘Actually, the day I left, Megumi was preparing for a very hot date . . . with . . .’ Her words trailed off.

‘With who? With who?’ Reiko bounced on the edge of her seat.

‘ . . . Kaneda!’ Sophia finished triumphantly.

‘Yes!’ Reiko pumped one arm in victory. ‘I always thought he’d be so much better for her!’

Ivy had no idea who they were talking about, but she grinned along with them.

‘Aha!’ Sophia spun around, pointing an accusatory finger at Ivy. ‘Gotcha! I caught you smiling. The Happy Vampire is back!’

‘Augh!’ Ivy groaned as the rest of her family burst into laughter. ‘Don’t remind me.’ She had only just stopped having nightmares about the mix-up the twins had had at Café Creative’s recent fashion show, when she and Olivia had accidentally ended up in each other’s outfits. It wouldn’t have been a problem – except that, as identical twins, the girls looked so similar that the vampire community had assumed that it was Ivy in the goth-tastic black gown, grinning like she’d just won a backstage pass to a Pall Bearers show.

‘Well, as long as you aren’t going to scare me by smiling all the time . . .’ Sophia teased. ‘Because that would be too terrifying! I really –’

But Ivy didn’t catch the rest of Sophia’s sentence. Olivia’s cell phone trilled loudly. Olivia pulled it out, opened up her text messages . . . and gasped.

‘It’s an SOS,’ she said. ‘Camilla needs our help with the set-up for tomorrow’s party . . . otherwise she says it might be ruined!’

‘Not if we can help it,’ Ivy said. ‘Come on, guys. We need to get to Café Creative, now!’