Sophia gave a wistful sigh. ‘He was worried about me. Wasn’t that sweet of him?’
‘Not sweet enough to justify actual bruises,’ said Ivy. ‘You seriously –’
She stopped abruptly as her vampire hearing picked up on the conversation going on among the skater-boys behind them.
‘How crazy is that Franklin Grove girl?’ said one of the boys. ‘Watch out, Finn. Who knows what she’ll try next to get your attention?’
‘She obviously likes you a scary lot, bro,’ said another boy. ‘If she’s putting this much effort into faking –’
The first boy snorted. ‘Did you see that “accidental” triple somersault earlier?’
Ivy winced as she tried to imagine how much a triple somersault would hurt even a vampire.
Probably not nearly as much as hearing what Finn’s friends were saying right now.
‘Sophia . . .’ she began, in a whisper. Her friend’s face was pale and she looked as though she felt sick.
But Finn suddenly broke in: ‘Lay off her, you guys! You don’t have to be jerks about it.’
Score one for Skater Finn, Ivy thought.
Maybe he wasn’t the right boy for her best friend . . . but he wasn’t a bad guy, after all.
‘Hey!’ Finn called from behind them. Ivy turned and saw that he had broken away from his friends to head straight for Sophia. He held out his skateboard, which was painted with swirls of yellow and bright orange. ‘Here. This is one of my favourites. Do you want to borrow it until you get a new one?’
‘Really?’ Sophia breathed. She took the board from him and stroked it reverentially. ‘You would really do that? For me?’
‘Hey, it’s no big deal.’ Finn shrugged. ‘I’ve got more of them at home.’
He’s telling the truth, Ivy realised, as she looked at his expression.
To Finn, it really was no big deal. He was just a nice guy, doing a nice thing. But to Sophia . . . Ivy’s chest tightened.
Sophia was so busy stroking the skateboard, she hadn’t even noticed how casual Finn was being. And to her, the gesture obviously meant a lot.
As Finn headed back towards his friends, Ivy tried to think of the right thing to say. She had to tell Sophia the truth somehow, but she couldn’t bear to break her best friend’s heart by doing it. How would Olivia put it?
It had to be gentle, it had to be kind . . .
‘Did you see how stupid she looked?’
The biting tones of one of the identical pixie-cut blonde skater-girls on the other side of the park sliced right into Ivy’s vampire-strong hearing. ‘She doesn’t just go head-over-heels on her skateboard – she’s going head-over-heels for Finn, too!’
The other skater-girls giggled.
‘She’s like a little panting puppy,’ one of them agreed. ‘“Oh, Finn, just look at me, please look at me, please!”’
‘He must feel so sorry for her!’ a third girl piped in.
Sophia let out a muffled gasp of hurt, and Ivy could already feel the death-squint on her face as she spun around.
No one makes fun of my best friend. Especially not some identikit blonde clone!
She started forwards, like a warrior going into battle, but Sophia’s hand clamped around her arm.
‘No!’ Sophia’s face looked almost green against her pixie-cut blonde hair now, but she shook her head. ‘Think about it, Ivy. A human wouldn’t have heard what they were saying. They’re too far away.’
‘She’s right,’ Brendan agreed. His jaw was clenched with obvious frustration, but he shook his head at Ivy.
‘I don’t care!’ Ivy glared at the skater-girls across the field. ‘I’m going to go over there and tell those little clones exactly what I think of them.’
‘This is Lincoln Vale,’ Sophia said. ‘You can’t just march over there and call out the mean girls. These mean girls aren’t used to being overheard from far away, like girls in Franklin Grove are. They’ll know that something’s not right.’ She took a deep breath. ‘Remember what we were told before we started this school? We need to be careful.’
Ivy closed her eyes and felt frustration sweep through her. But Sophia was right.
Slowly, with dragging steps, she turned back to her friends and started walking away from the skatepark.
High school sucks, she thought. And not in a good way!
Brendan took her hand and squeezed it, while Sophia walked stiff-backed beside her, cradling Finn’s skateboard under one arm.
As they reached the gates of the park, they saw a familiar, black-clad figure passing between them. Ivy nearly groaned. Of all the times to run into Goth-Queen Amelia!
Amelia barely spared them a glance before narrowing her eyes at the skater-girls across the park. ‘I saw those idiotic girls laughing at you,’ she snapped. ‘Do not let that continue. Otherwise it’ll follow all of us into school! If you want to be goths, you need to assert yourselves.’
Only Brendan’s meaningful hand-squeeze stopped Ivy from snapping right back, I’ll show you assertiveness!
Amelia strode past without waiting for a reply. Ivy turned to glare after her, and saw the older girl head for her usual lounging spot, just by the skate-area. Her followers were already flocking there from the four corners of the park.
Actually, wait a minute . . . Ivy frowned as the thought finally occurred to her. If Amelia’s so determined to preserve goth social dominance, then why does she spend so much time at the skatepark? Amelia seemed to come here almost as much as Sophia! She thought back to the time that Amelia had been in the park, watching Sophia with undisguised suspicion. Watching Sophia and Finn . . .