Free 13 Double Disaster - My Sister the Vampire by Sienna Mercer Page A

farmer. Don’t you think?’
    Her followers all laughed, like good little lackeys. Ivy’s jaw clenched. ‘That’s it,’ she said. ‘I’m going to –’
    Sophia grabbed her arm and pulled her forwards. ‘Just forget it, Ivy.’
    ‘Don’t engage,’ Brendan agreed in a whisper. ‘It’ll only cause more trouble.’
    Reluctantly, Ivy gave in. She breathed a sigh of relief the moment they stepped out of the park. At least now, they wouldn’t have anyone watching their every movement any more. Or would
they? A curtain twitched across the street. Another twitched nearby. A moment later, a whole group of bunnies came flooding out of the first house, while goth underlings came hurrying from the
park.
    ‘Ivy! I’m having a party on Saturday. Do you want to come?’
    ‘Hey, Ivy, we’re having a barbecue next week. Will you be there?’
    ‘Ivy, do you want to come to my house sometime? Just to hang out?’
    Hang out?
Ivy stared at the girl who’d made the suggestion.
I’ve never even seen her before. What would
we even
talk
about?
    Sophia’s voice quivered with laughter as she whispered into Ivy’s ear, ‘How does it feel to be Ms Popular?’
    Ivy had to bite back a groan of horror. Sophia was right! Somehow, in this crazy town and school, she had actually become popular.
This was
not supposed to happen!
    She looked at the crowd of waiting, expectant faces all around her and resolved to do something about this. She needed help to deal with her new circumstances.
    Next time I talk to Olivia
, she vowed,
I will ask
her: how does
anyone
survive being popular?

Chapter Six

    ‘A aaaand
cut
!’
    Olivia’s shoulders slumped with relief as the cameras stopped recording. She could barely breathe.
How did real Victorian women wear corsets
every day without
suffocating?
    But wearing corsets all the time still couldn’t have been more annoying for Victorian girls than Olivia’s afternoon had been for her – thirty-seven takes of walking into a room
and gasping, followed by twenty-two takes of her looking out of a window ‘wistfully’.
    At this rate, I may graduate from
college
before we finish this film!
    ‘And with that, we are wrapped tight and cosy for today!’ Jacob Harker bellowed – even though calling an end to the day’s filming should have been Tom the
director’s job. ‘Out-race dawn to the set tomorrow, folks.’
    I assume he just means ‘bright and early’
, Olivia thought as she made her way off the set towards her trailer as quickly as she could. Unfortunately, that wasn’t very
quick. Her burgundy silk dress might have been drop-dead gorgeous, but between her fluffy bell-shaped skirt and tight ankle-length petticoat, walking was suddenly a
serious
challenge.
    And tomorrow I have to somehow dance in this outfit!
She let out a groan.
How is that supposed to happen?
    As she walked through the maze of production trucks and trailers parked outside the posh mansion where they had been filming, Olivia spotted Jackson standing with his back to her outside one of
the trailers. He was dressed in his ‘poor’ Victorian costume, flipping through a script, and his shoulders were hunched.
    Olivia frowned. Was he just concentrating hard? Or was he nervous?
That’s so unlike him.
She hesitated, looking at his hunched shoulders.
Could he be nervous because of
us?
    Their afternoon in London had been wonderful, but things had turned awkward again as soon as they’d started filming yesterday.
Then
again . . .
Olivia sighed. They were
playing people who were supposed to be in love with each other! For a real-life ex-couple, that was a tense situation to be in. How could they
not
feel awkward in this situation?
    Maybe if she could lighten things up somehow . . .
    All of a sudden, as Olivia stared at Jackson’s back, she felt an overwhelming urge to sneak up behind him, cover his eyes and say, ‘
Guess who?
’
    Don’t be ridiculous!
she told herself.
Why would
anyone, in the history of