“Hey, Dad,” Ivy announced.
“Oh, hello, Ivy,” Mr. Vega said, bolting to his feet. “I didn’t hear you come in.” He shuffled his drawing under some other sketches.
“Hi...” Olivia said, momentarily unsure how to address the man before her, “Mr. Vega.”
“Hello, Olivia,” Mr. Vega responded stiffly, not having noticed her standing in the door until that moment. He quickly averted his eyes, and Olivia’s heart sank.
“What are you working on?” Ivy said.
“Nothing,” he said. “Just some design ideas.”
“My dad designed this whole house himself,” Ivy told Olivia proudly.
Olivia already knew, but she guessed Ivy was just trying to remind her dad of that fact. She tried to say something enthusiastic, but she was tongue-tied. “Cool,” she croaked at last.
“Each wall, each floorboard, each light switch, each shelf,” Mr. Vega said nostalgically. “I am going to—” He stopped himself abruptly.
“Miss being here?” Ivy finished his sentence, her dark lips curling into a grin.
“Yes,” Mr. Vega said. “Yes, of course. But a house is not a good enough reason to stay,” he added quickly.
“There are lots of other reasons,” Ivy said. “Right, Olivia?”
Olivia felt the familiar sensation of stepping in front of a crowd. She was still wearing her cheerleading outfit, after all. Her nervousness magically dissolved and she felt her voice bubble into her throat. “That’s right, Ivy!” she agreed. She reached into her backpack, pulled out the CD with their presentation on it, and held it out with a stellar smile. Time to cheer our hearts out! she thought.
“Please, Ivy,” her father pleaded as Ivy shooed him from his chair and slid the CD into his computer. “I am really very busy.”
“Too busy for the most important presentation of your entire life?” Ivy retorted. Her fingers were shaking as she grabbed the mouse, but she was determined not to let either her dad or her sister know how nervous she was. “You can go sit over there.”
“This won’t take long, Mr. Vega,” chirped Olivia. “You won’t regret it. Promise!” No matter what, Ivy thought gratefully, Olivia always rises to the occasion.
Defeated, Ivy’s father collapsed into the reading chair across from the desk. Once she had the presentation cued up, Ivy spun the monitor all the way around so her father could see, and then she and Olivia went around to the front of the desk and arranged themselves on either side of the screen.
“Ready?” Ivy whispered.
“Ready.” Olivia smiled, squeezing her hand.
Ivy reached behind them and clicked the mouse to begin, and the first plaintive guitar notes of “Paint It Black” by the Rolling Stones sounded from the computer’s speakers. Between Ivy and Olivia, a tiny speck appeared in the middle of the blank screen.
“I love this song,” Mr. Vega remarked approvingly.
Ivy couldn’t help rolling her eyes. “I know,” she said out of the corner of her mouth as the white speck grew larger and larger, like a meteor approaching from outer space.
“Shhh!” scolded Olivia as the title slammed to the front of the screen, accompanied by a sudden barrage of drums.
“ ‘THE MOST IMPORTANT PRESENTATION OF YOUR ENTIRE LIFE,’ ” Olivia and Ivy read in unison.
Ivy’s dad let out a small laugh. “I thought you were only saying that,” he said.
Olivia stepped forward professionally. As Mick Jagger sang, “I see a red door and I want to paint it black,” the screen dissolved into an old blackand-white etching of some modest huts that Olivia had found in a library book. “The year is 1666,” she began. “A small band of Transylvanian exiles settles on a very special piece of land. They decide to name it Franklin Grove.”
Ivy was seriously impressed that her sister had memorized her lines. Ivy had tried, but she’d ended up having to write notes on her palm. “That same year,” Ivy said, glancing down at her hand, “across the ocean...”
The screen transitioned to a similar woodcut, but this one was of a much bigger city, all its buildings covered with inky flames that licked the air. “The Great Fire of London wipes out the homes of seventy thousand innocent people!”
On the soundtrack, there were shouts and screams. Ivy noticed her father wincing, which she took as an encouraging sign.
“And that,” said Olivia, in an uncharacteristically low voice, “is merely where the differences begin.”
“Here’s what happens at the highest point in Europe,” said Ivy, as the screen showed an avalanche threatening to engulf a group of downhill skiers.
“Here’s what happens at the highest point in Franklin Grove,” said Olivia, as the screen displayed a stunning picture Sophia had taken of the Vega house at dusk, the wide, crimson sky behind it.
“Here’s what happens when people cheer in Franklin Grove,” Ivy went on. The screen changed to a picture of Olivia standing atop a pyramid of Franklin Grove Devils cheerleaders, her fist held triumphantly over her head. Ivy could swear she could see a glimmer of pride in her father’s eyes. It’s working! she thought hopefully.
“And here’s what happens when people cheer in Europe,” said Olivia. On screen, a crowd at a soccer match had descended into a chaotic riot.
Now came Ivy’s favorite part of the whole presentation. “Here are the sorts of things that happen if we stay in Franklin Grove,” she declared. The screen started moving from image to image, without any accompaniment other than the rocking chords of the Rolling Stones: Ivy in her wine-colored strapless ball gown, standing with her tuxedoed father’s arms around her before the All Hallows’ Ball; the black-and-white Vamp magazine picture of Ivy and Olivia, without any makeup, looking at each other in the guest bathroom mirror; her father, clapping for Olivia after she passed the three trials and was initiated by the Vampire Round Table; Ivy, Sophia, Olivia, and Brendan with their arms around one another at Brendan’s family crypt; Ivy’s father, thoughtful in a chair in the corner of the living room while Ivy and Olivia chatted excitedly before him. The pictures went on and on.