Free Star Style by Sienna Mercer Page B

definitely
not
wear a mini skirt with ankle socks,’ Charlotte practically shouted, so that the whole cafeteria could hear. ‘You have to wear knee-highs.’ She’d been going around all week telling everyone how she and Jessica were now BFFs.
    Ugh
, Ivy thought.
    ‘No prize for guessing how they got tipped off,’ Ivy said, putting her face in her hands. ‘And it’s totally my fault.’ Ivy remembered the victorious feeling of accepting Harker’s offer in front of Jessica and all those suits, but her enemy must have put two and two together and realised exactly which film Ivy was due to star in. That moment of triumph could cost Olivia big time.
    ‘We’ve got to do something,’ Ivy declared.
    ‘Yes, please!’ replied Sophia.
    ‘I’ll help,’ Jackson put in.
    ‘Could we trap them in the school and force them to take our math quiz?’ Brendan joked, with his mouth full of burger.
    ‘I like that idea,’ Jackson said. ‘I haven’t studied.’
    ‘Focus, please!’ interrupted Ivy. ‘First, we need to make sure that Olivia and I aren’t seen together and, second, we need to throw the paps off the scent.’
    But before Ivy could come up with a plan, she spotted her sister wandering into the cafeteria.
    Disaster alert!
Ivy realised. The photographers still had their noses pressed up against the window.
    Olivia spotted them at their table. If Ivy didn’t do something about it, Olivia would blow their cover.
    She leaped up from her seat. ‘STOP!’ she shouted at the top of her lungs.
    Olivia stopped dead in the doorway, confused, and a hundred student heads swivelled to stare at Ivy.
    Ivy tried to ignore them, but she noticed Charlotte watching her carefully. She couldn’t let Charlotte figure out what she was up to, so she turned to Brendan.
    ‘Stop stealing my ketchup!’ she shouted. ‘You know how much it means to me.’
    Sophia sniggered and Brendan dropped the three fries that were halfway to his mouth. Charlotte rolled her eyes and went back to tittering with her minions.
    Ivy looked over at Olivia, who seemed to realise that something was going on. She took a step forwards and Ivy shook her head fiercely.
    Her sister got the point and stepped back while Ivy grabbed her history book and shielded her face from the window where thephotographers were.
    ‘She can’t come in here,’ Ivy said. ‘Not looking like that.’
    ‘Like what?’ Sophia asked.
    ‘Like me, of course!’ Ivy said.
    Jackson scowled, and looked a little intimidating with his hoodie and sunglasses. ‘I’m going to talk to the principal before next period, see if we can get them to stay away from the school.’
    ‘That would be a relief,’ Ivy said. ‘But they’ll just be waiting outside for when we leave.’
    Ivy saw Olivia waving from the doorway. She pointed to the food line and then to her belly and mouthed, ‘I’m hungry!’
    ‘Poor Olivia,’ said Jackson. ‘We can’t let her starve.’
    He stood up and went over to the counter, grabbing a salad, a bagel sandwich and a brownie on a tray for Olivia and then sat with her rightthere in the doorway, having lunch, as bemused fellow students walked around them to get into the cafeteria. The photographers’ lenses couldn’t see around the pillars at the entrance. They were safe for now.
    ‘I’ve got an idea. Code black, right after school,’ Ivy said, invoking her and Sophia’s age-old code for meeting in the science hall bathroom.
    Sophia nodded but Brendan said, ‘Uh . . . what does that mean?’
    Ivy smiled. ‘Have you ever wanted to visit the girl’s bathroom?’

Chapter Six

    T wenty minutes after school, Olivia was waiting in the girls’ bathroom for Sergeant Ivy to give her orders. Ivy had assembled Sophia, Camilla, Brendan and Jackson as well and had stuck a sign on the bathroom door that said OUT OF ORDER.
    ‘This is weirder than weird,’ said Brendan, looking around at the green-painted cubicles.
    ‘Agreed,’ said Jackson. ‘What if someone comes