Re-Vamped! by Sienna Mercer

goddess,” Audrey replied proudly.
    Moms
totally suck! thought Ivy.
    A
little while later, she and Audrey were sharing a table in the food court.
    “So
tell me about your father,” Audrey asked, sipping a Diet Coke daintily so she
wouldn’t smudge her latest application of Ivy’s lipstick. Ivy put down her
burger and stared at her plate. “Don’t you get along with him?” Audrey pressed.
    “I
usually do,” Ivy admitted. “I mean, I love him. He’s always been amazing. But
it’s hard not to be mad at him lately.”
    “Why?”
    “Because
I don’t want to move to Europe,” Ivy answered glumly.
    Audrey
nodded sympathetically. “I remember when Steve told me he needed to move to
Franklin Grove for work.”
    “What
did you do?” Ivy asked.
    “I
cried,” Audrey recalled. “And Olivia, well . . . she wouldn’t come out of her
room for a week. It was awful.”
    “Then
what happened?” asked Ivy.
    “Now I
can’t imagine living anywhere else,” Audrey said, smiling. She reached out and
put her hand on Ivy’s. “You’ll be all right,” she said. “Nothing can break the
bond you and Olivia share. Not even an ocean.”
    Ivy
nodded bravely.
    Suddenly
Audrey glanced at her watch and her face fell. “Oh, my goodness, how time
flies!”
    As
they drove out of the parking lot a little while later, she offered to take Ivy
home. Ivy was about to accept when Audrey added brightly, “I could meet your
father.”
    “I
just remembered,” Ivy improvised. “I promised Olivia before we left that I’d
meet her back at your house . . . so that she could walk me home . . . for the
exercise.”
    “You’re
sure I shouldn’t just drive you?” Audrey said, clearly disappointed.
    “Maybe
another day,” Ivy said as cheerily as she could.
    Olivia
was actually relieved to have an excuse to get out of the house. Just the sound
of her mother’s voice squealing “way deadly!” to Ivy upon their return from the
mall made her want to scream.
    “How’d
your research into our parents go?” Ivy asked as they strolled past the
cemetery on the way to Ivy’s house.
    “Pathetically,”
Olivia answered. “You know how many sets of twins there are from Owl Creek?”
    “I can
think of at least one,” said Ivy. “Three,” Olivia said. “Aside from us, there’s
Eddie and Freddie, who now run a pizza parlor in Chicago, and a brother and
sister figure skating Roller Derby team. Want to guess what the skaters call
themselves?”
    Ivy
made a face. “I thought we were a strange pair.”
    “The
Slippery Sliders,” Olivia revealed.
    Ivy
groaned.
    “I
couldn’t find any mention of us—or even a birth announcement for twin girls,”
Olivia lamented. It’s hard not to be discouraged when every path we explore
leads nowhere, she thought.
    Ivy
nodded sadly, almost like she could hear Olivia’s thoughts. Then she stopped.
“Did I show you the top your mom got me?”
    When
Olivia shook her head, Ivy reached into her knapsack and pulled out a low-cut,
supercute spiderweb thingy. She held it up in front of her and batted her thick
black eyelashes.
    Olivia
gaped. “My mom wouldn’t let me out of the house in a shirt like that!”
    “Well,
she was like a vamp in a bloodbath today,” Ivy said matter-of-factly. “You
should have seen her doing the zombie in the middle of Spins.”
    Olivia
covered her eyes with her hands. “I always thought my dad was the embarrassing
one. Anyway,” she continued, determined to be mature about it, “I’m glad you
two had a good time.”
    Ivy
nodded. Olivia looked at her. “Didn’t you?”
    “Of
course,” Ivy said quietly. “She was utterly great, and I ...well, I kind of
found out what it was like to have a mom.” She kicked the pavement with the tip
of her boot. “But Audrey’s not my mom,” she went on. “She’s yours.You’re really
lucky, Olivia,” she finished in a whisper.
    Olivia
felt tears spring to her eyes. Yeah, I am, she thought. She wrapped
Ivy’s arm in her hands