There was a moment of dead silence. Then Olivia turned to see her twin’s horrified expression, and they both burst out laughing at the same time.
‘Sorry,’ Olivia said, almost choking on her laughter. ‘That was a silly question, wasn’t it?’ The idea of grumpy goth Ivy in a big, billowing white dress . . .
‘It certainly was,’ Ivy said, wrapping one arm around Olivia’s shoulders. ‘Ivy plus meringue dresses equals the biggest, baddest mood. On the other hand . . .’ She licked her wooden baking spoon with an exaggerated flourish. ‘Ivy plus meringues? Now you’re talking!’
With perfect timing, the oven bell dinged. ‘They’re ready!’ Olivia said, and raced to the oven, pulling on pink oven mitts. Why should Olivia care about unavailable dream-boys or vampire-obsessed bloggers when she had a twin like Ivy at her side?
Plus now there were cakes to eat!
Chapter Three
Ivy only wished that she could dismiss the mysterious blogger so easily. A day after they’d first discovered the web site, Olivia was running around like a rabbit who’d been fed energy drinks, getting everything ready for the baking party. Ivy took advantage of her twin’s distraction to go up to her room and get back online.
A few moments later, she was grinding her teeth as she finished reading the blogger’s latest entry:
‘ . . . Is it really true that vampires can’t stand garlic? This brave journalist is determined to find out, no matter what it takes – so watch this space !’
Some poor vampire was going to be in real trouble if they didn’t stay on their toes. Ivy still remembered a time she’d mistakenly eaten a pastrami sandwich with garlic in it – she’d taken two days to recover!
How was this blogger actually getting things right? And even more importantly, who were they? No matter how much Ivy poked about on the web site, she just couldn’t find a clue to his or her identity. Even when she ran the blog through the Vorld Vide Veb, nothing came up except a load of hysterical messages from vampires worried about their secrets being exposed.
Ivy hated to admit it, but they had good reason to worry . . . and she’d just had a nasty suspicion of her own. What if the mystery blogger was actually the journalist Serena Star, back on the vampire case? Calling herself ‘The Star of Truth’, she’d come dangerously close to exposing the secrets of Franklin Grove before the twins had outwitted her. If she was back for a second shot, that could really spell disaster.
Ivy had to talk to Olivia. Carrying her laptop with her, she headed down to the kitchen – just as the doorbell sounded.
Drat !
Letting out a squeal of excitement, Olivia flew down the hallway to answer it. Sighing, Ivy looked for a safe place to set down her laptop. After all the energy Olivia had put into preparing this baking party, Ivy couldn’t ruin it for her. I’ll just have to do my best to put the blogger out of my mind . . . for an afternoon.
‘We’re the first ones here!’ Sophia said, as she swept into the kitchen in front of a lagging Brendan. Behind him, Camilla was rummaging in her bag. Ivy could guess what she was rummaging for.
‘And we’ve brought ingredients!’ Wearing uber-glamorous sunglasses, Sophia waved a shoulder bag that could have come straight from the Prada line-up.
Ivy choked. ‘You put flour and sugar in that ?’
‘No, silly. I’ve brought decorations, to make everything look fabulous!’
As Sophia took out a pile of Tupperware boxes from her bag, full of tiny, crystallised cake decorations shaped like black bats and red castles, Ivy looped one arm around her boyfriend’s waist.
‘Hope you’re hungry!’ she said perkily, channelling Olivia’s most cheerleader-bright tone.
Brendan gave a half-hearted smile. ‘I’m here, aren’t I?’
The next moment, Camilla was barking orders from the doorway, her face hidden by her video camera. ‘Focus, everyone! This is for posterity.’
They all groaned, but not too hard – they knew Camilla too well to argue. And as Ivy looked around the kitchen, she had to admit it really was a scene worth filming. Olivia had covered every available surface in wipe-clean tablecloths and put out bowls of strawberry and lemon sweets, milk chocolate discs, and pink-and-blue decorations. It was like a picture from a magazine, pretty, neat and perfectly organised – just like Olivia herself.
‘Come on, everyone!’ Olivia said. ‘I’ve got ingredients for crispie cakes and chocolate-chip cookies.’ She pointed at the different stations she’d set up around the room. ‘Everyone take their places!’
‘Brendan’s brought something too,’ Ivy said, and nudged her boyfriend even as Sophia got to work on freezer cakes.
Brendan’s grin was real this time, as he held out his bag. ‘Double-00 flour: the best of the best!’
‘Aha.’ Ivy’s eyes narrowed. ‘So this was your secret to those unbeatable macaroons, huh?’
I can bake macaroons just as good as his, no matter what he says ! Ivy reached for the bag, fired up by her competitive instinct – she hadn’t forgotten his challenge! – but Olivia’s hand closed around it at exactly the same time. Oops ! Ivy let go, stepping back to let Olivia take the bag . . . just as Olivia let go, stepping back to let Ivy take it.
The two girls’ eyes met. Then the bag landed on the kitchen floor, exploding and spraying clouds of flour all over both of them.
Ivy heard Olivia draw in a breath. Sophia gasped – perhaps a little too melodramatically. The flour had fallen fast, but not so fast that one of the three vampires in the room couldn’t have caught it before it hit the floor. But with Camilla filming, they had to let the mess be made.