As Ivy walked past Maya, she mumbled, ‘See you around.’
It was like talking to a statue. The other girl didn’t even blink.
Whatever. Ivy rolled her eyes. At least I tried!
Halfway to homeroom, she and Olivia had to split up to collect their things from their lockers. Olivia’s own late start at school meant that her locker was not with Ivy and the rest of her class – she’d been placed with the older students. As Ivy waved goodbye to her sister, she turned towards her own locker . . . and smiled when she saw her boyfriend leaning against it, his back turned to her.
‘Hey!’ Running up behind him, she poked Brendan in the shoulder.
‘Ah!’ He jumped, dropping the phone in his hand . . . and when a vampire jumped, he really jumped. Ivy had to grab his arm to keep him from landing several feet away.
‘What’s wrong?’ she asked.
‘Sorry.’ Smoothing down his messy dark hair, he gave her a weak smile. ‘Just startled. I didn’t hear you coming.’
‘Really?’ Ivy blinked. ‘You know, Olivia said Lillian didn’t hear her approaching yesterday, too. Maybe there’s an epidemic of “vampire deafiness” going around!’ She snickered . . . but Brendan’s expression was blank as he gazed over her shoulder.
‘Hey!’ Ivy prodded his arm. ‘OK, I know that joke was dumb, but a true boyfriend would have given me a pity laugh.’
‘Oh.’ Brendan gave an obviously forced chuckle. ‘Yeah,’ he said. ‘Good one.’ He met her gaze for a moment . . . then looked again back over her shoulder.
Ivy peered up into his face. ‘Are you OK?’ Stepping closer, she dropped her voice to a bare whisper. ‘You’ve been acting kind of weird ever since yesterday. Was it that phone call you got?’
He swallowed visibly. ‘What phone call?’
‘“What phone call?”’ Ivy stared at him in disbelief. ‘Come on. You got a mysterious phone call, and left the house to answer it – and then you came back and said you suddenly “had to go home” just because of some TV show you were missing.’
‘Oh. Well.’ Brendan ran one hand through his hair, not meeting her eyes. ‘That was nothing. I’m just tired . . . And y’know, I had a lot of homework to do yesterday. That English assignment really bit.’
Ivy frowned as his gaze drifted back over her shoulder. ‘So . . . that’s the only reason you look so tired today?’
‘Yes!’ His gaze snapped back to her. ‘Definitely. Totally. That’s absolutely it.’
‘Ohhh-kay . . .’ Ivy forced herself to nod, as if she’d accepted it . . . but her mind was churning.
Brendan is not the type of person to answer a question three times!
She reached out to touch his arm. ‘Brendan . . .’
He jumped away before she could touch him, moving hastily to his own locker a few feet away. ‘Hey, we should get to class.’ He scooped his books out in a rush. ‘I don’t want to be late, OK?’
‘OK.’ Biting her lip, Ivy grabbed her own books from her locker.
He started down the hall without her.
It’s all right, Ivy told herself. He’s just tired . . . I guess?
This really wasn’t like Brendan, the boy who had given her an awesome bat ring, and who had encouraged her to attend an elite school in another country without getting even the slightest bit jealous. As she shut her locker door, she looked over her shoulder and saw Maya, the new girl, looking in her direction.
Or . . . Wait a minute. A chill ran through Ivy as she followed Maya’s gaze.
It wasn’t Ivy that Maya was looking at. It was Brendan. And as Ivy watched, Maya moved towards Brendan’s locker. She didn’t even seem to see Ivy as she reached out to run one finger along the metal surface, still gazing after Brendan in the distance.
Standing frozen, Ivy replayed her weird conversation with Brendan in her head. He’d kept on looking over her shoulder, hadn’t he? It was as if he couldn’t look away.
And Maya was still looking right towards him.
Had Brendan actually been stealing looks with Maya?
The answer was a shout straight from Ivy’s heart. Absolutely not! Brendan would never do that!
‘Hey,’ Olivia called, as she weaved her way through a stream of students towards Ivy’s locker. ‘You ready to –’ Olivia’s eyes narrowed. She put one hand on Ivy’s shoulder. ‘Are you OK?’
‘I’m fine,’ Ivy mumbled, without looking around. ‘Just fine.’
But even as she followed Olivia in the direction of homeroom, she craned her neck to look backwards, keeping a watchful eye on Maya.
Something weird was definitely going on between Brendan and the new girl . . . and no matter what it took, Ivy was determined to get to the bottom of it.
By the time the bell sounded to signal the end of Chemistry, Ivy was so wired, she could have snapped at any moment. Worse yet, even as all the other students headed straight to the sinks to wash their hands clear of the gunky chemicals they’d been using, Brendan jumped up like he couldn’t wait to escape. Shrugging off his lab coat, he grabbed his bag, slung it over his shoulder, and practically ran out of the classroom with unwashed, green chemical-covered hands . . . alone.
Talk about suspicious! Ivy gritted her teeth as she washed her own black-and-red-covered hands in double-quick time.
It’s time to practise my investigative reporter skills – on my own boyfriend!
She aimed for the door like a loaded missile heading for its target. Unfortunately, someone hopped in front of her before she could even move three steps.
‘Ivy! Hey, Ivy. Hi! I just wanted to introduce myself !’ The perky blonde bunny girl who blocked her way grinned hopefully, bouncing on the toes of her pink tennis shoes. ‘I’m Marcia!’
‘Um . . . hi, Marcia. Nice to meet you, too,’ Ivy fibbed. She had seen this bunny girl plenty of times before, but this was definitely not the time she would have chosen for official introductions! She shifted to the left, shaking her head. ‘Sorry, but I’m –’
‘Oh, I won’t keep you,’ Marcia said brightly, even as she sidestepped to stay in front of Ivy. ‘But I thought it was definitely time that we met for real, right? Before next week?’
‘Uh . . .’ Ivy shrugged helplessly. ‘I guess? But the thing is, right now I’m –’
‘You’re Ivy Vega, right? And I’m Marcia Vincent. So . . .’ Marcia flung out her hands, beaming.
