exciting? Or just bittersweet?
Uh-oh. She suddenly realised that Jackson had been talking through her moment of distraction. ‘Huh?’
‘Olivia Abbott, are you bored of me already?’ He raised his cap to give her a look of mock-offence.
She lightly swatted his arm. ‘You know that’s not it!’
Then she blushed, as she looked up and caught at least three other students staring at her from around the corridor. I guess they weren’t expecting to see me hit an elderly janitor. Oops!
‘I was just saying, it won’t be long before we’ve wrapped on “ES”,’ said Jackson. ‘Final scenes shoot in November.’
‘Right.’ Olivia sighed. Life would become so much easier once she didn’t have to balance schoolwork and filming any more . . . but she couldn’t be completely happy about that, because it would mean she’d get much less time with Jackson.
‘Anyway . . . I’ll see you tonight.’ He glanced left and right under the brim of his cap and nodded decisively. ‘I’d better get back to work. I see a corner over there that’s filthy. ’
‘What are you doing ?’ Olivia stared at him as he started forward. ‘You’re not actually paid to clean the school, remember?’
Jackson shrugged. ‘I can never leave a job unfinished. Anyway, you probably ought to rescue Ivy.’
‘Rescue –? What are you talking about?’
‘Oh, I couldn’t possibly ruin the surprise.’ Jackson gave her a wry, amused grin. ‘You have to take a walk across the quad and see this one for yourself. Besides, you wouldn’t believe me if I did tell you!’
It was such a familiar grin – and she’d missed him so much – that Olivia couldn’t help herself. She started forwards, her arms rising instinctively . . .
Then she pulled herself back, just in time. No way. It was weird enough for her to be seen hitting the janitor. If anyone saw her hug him, too, then they would really have questions!
So she only whispered, ‘Later,’ smiled, and turned away.
Time to rescue Ivy – whatever that means!
She hurried down the hall towards the quad, ignoring the students shooting her curious glances. As she stepped outside into the cloudy autumn afternoon, though, she was startled to see the actual janitor, Jonny, leaning against an outer wall and taking deep breaths.
‘Um . . .’ Hesitantly, she started towards him. She’d never spoken to him before, but she couldn’t just ignore his distress. ‘Excuse me, but are you OK? You don’t look very well.’
Hastily straightening, Jonny smoothed down his grey hair with shaking fingers. ‘I feel like I’m going crazy,’ he mumbled. ‘I’ve been walking the halls of this school for the last twenty minutes, getting ready to begin my end-of-the-day work, but . . .’ He shook his head in disbelief. ‘They’re already spotless ! Either I’ve come down with serious amnesia, or the students have actually started cleaning up after themselves . . . and I don’t know what would be scarier!’
Stifling a laugh, Olivia ducked her head so that he couldn’t read her expression. ‘Um . . . the teachers did ask us all to respect the school a bit more,’ she mumbled, and moved away quickly, before he could say anything else.
As she walked across the quad, she kept her eyes open for Ivy, looking left and right, past groups of goths and bunnies and . . .
No. I can’t believe it! Gasping, Olivia came to a sudden halt as she finally spotted her twin sister.
I know Ivy’s been struggling to keep Reiko entertained . . . but I would never have expected this!
Ivy spotted Olivia out of the corner of her eye, but she couldn’t wave, because her hands were full. She couldn’t even nod at her sister, because she had to keep her eyes on the ball, of all ridiculous things.
She was trapped playing doubles tennis !
‘Ivy and Reiko lead by four games to love,’ called the sophomore bunny who’d volunteered as their umpire. She sounded as excited as if she was watching a professional tennis match.
I can’t believe this is happening to me, Ivy thought miserably.
Reiko had insisted they play against Skylar Drew and Hayley Winston, two blonde bunny seniors who were tennis-obsessed. Both girls were super-athletic, and had promised to ‘go easy’ on the two freshmen girls but the truth was, they had very little hope of beating two vampires . . . even if one of those vampires didn’t even like tennis.
Why couldn’t I just say no? Ivy asked herself. But she already knew the answer.
She couldn’t be mean to the exchange student. Unfortunately, tactful dodges didn’t seem to work with Reiko; and Reiko – whose hair was a vivid blue today – apparently could not walk past the tennis court without challenging the girls already there to a ferocious game of doubles.
Now, Reiko fired a fast forehand that had Skylar scrambling to return. Ivy swung a half-hearted backhand . . . but a vampire’s half-hearted backhand still sent the ball flying across the court so fast it was almost invisible.
Hayley lunged forwards just in time to return the ball with a clever drop shot. It fell just over the net, and Skylar hooted with triumph before it could even land.
‘Yes!’
No normal player could possibly get to that ball in time . . . but Reiko was no normal player. She raced forwards in a green-yellow-and-blue blur to dive, racquet first and flick the ball back up and over the heads of their opponents. Hayley and Skylar collided into each other as they both leaped for it, collapsing in a tangle of tanned arms and legs.
‘Fifteen-love,’ the umpire announced, staring at Reiko in amazement.
Ouch. Ivy felt a wave of sympathy as she watched the bunnies pick themselves up, groaning. ‘Let’s take a minute, OK?’ she called out. ‘I’m, um, out of breath.’
Hayley and Skylar only waved their assent, panting too hard to talk.
Ivy pulled Reiko aside and lowered her voice to a whisper. ‘Hey, cut it out with the super-vamp moves. We’re supposed to be making this game competitive, remember?’
‘No way.’ Reiko grinned. ‘I’m here to win. ’
‘We already are winning,’ Ivy hissed. ‘Plus, if you make any more plays like that last one, we’re going to get some serious questions. A normal human being can’t do things like that!’
Reiko shrugged. ‘I’ll take my game down to ninety-five per cent, but that’s the best I can do.’
Ivy groaned as they took their places once more.
The bunny girls both looked grimly
