Having looked everywhere else for Brendan's book, Olivia kicked aside a pile of black clothes and crouched down to peer under Ivy's bed. Pulling up the black velvet bed skirt, it took her a moment to realize the only thing under there was her sister's shiny coffin.
She bolted upright. "Of course it's not under there," she said, rolling her eyes like Ivy might. Brendan just looked at her, frowning. She couldn't tell whether he was amused, suspicious, or worried that his girlfriend had completely lost her mind.
Olivia peered around Ivy's room desperately. It was a complete mess--the floor was so littered with black shoes and clothes that she could barely see the carpet; the bed was a nest of bags, pillows, and cosmetics; and Ivy's desk looked like it had been hit by an avalanche of paper and CDs. Olivia had been looking for Brendan's book for twenty minutes already.
All she knew was she had to get him out of the house before Ivy came home. He's bound to figure everything out if he sees two Ivys in one place, she thought, and that won't be good! It had been stress- ful enough getting to Ivy's basement bedroom in the first place. Olivia had had to try three differ- ent keys before she found the one that opened the front door, and then she'd had to stand there awkwardly while Brendan and Ivy's dad chatted amicably in the front hall.
Suddenly, Olivia spotted the corner of a book peeking out from underneath a gray towel on the floor. She dashed over, pulling the soggy towel aside to reveal a waterlogged paperback.
Olivia had never felt so relieved to see a ruined book in her entire life. "Oh, no," she said, carry- ing the book over to Brendan, "it got wet." She held it out with an apologetic frown.
Brendan glanced down at the book. "Ivy," he said, "this is from social studies. I need the English book I gave you last week."
I am so dead, thought Olivia. She had to find Brendan's book fast, or he was going to realize something was up--if he hadn't already!
Ivy turned a corner and glanced forlornly up at her house, which loomed atop the hill at the end of the cul-de-sac. Right away, she saw that Toby Decker was lurking in front of Charlotte Brown's house, right next door to her own.
Ivy dove behind an oak tree.
Peeking out carefully, she saw Toby walking along the curb as if it were a balance beam. He hopped off, looked up toward Ivy's house hope- fully, and then hopped on again and teetered in the other direction.
Hasn't he given up yet? Ivy thought. Seriously, she'd had enough frustration for one afternoon. She was certainly in no mood to wander around the neighborhood for all eternity, waiting for Toby Decker to call it a day.
Unfortunately, the alternatives were just as O negative. If Toby spotted her going into the house dressed like Olivia, he might get suspicious. And even if Ivy could make herself look normal again, Toby might guess that he'd been following around an impostor all afternoon. Worse, he might run and tell Serena Star that there were legions of identical queens of the damned roam- ing Franklin Grove.
This bites! Ivy thought, leaning back against the tree.
Charlotte was Ivy's neighbor on one side; on the other lived the Carltons. Their property ran up the length of the hill, to where a line of bushes sepa- rated the two yards. Ivy had no choice. It was risky, but she decided to try and sneak behind the Carlton's house, up the hill, through the bushes, and into her own backyard. Then she could climb in her bedroom window without Toby seeing.There wouldn't be many trees to hide behind on the way, but luckily she had vampire speed on her side.
Ivy peeked out again. She held her breath, waiting for Toby to turn his back on her in his walk along the curb.