All day Tuesday, Olivia still felt giddy from their success at the ASHH offices. In fact, she was still humming to herself Wednesday morning, when Ivy and Sophia appeared at her locker while she was putting her jacket away.
"Code black." They grinned before darting away. Olivia knew from secret meetings during the Serena Star affair that that meant she should meet them in the science hall bathroom immediately.
She quickly slammed her locker shut and followed them down the hall.
"With smiles like those, you two are a disgrace to Goths everywhere," Olivia teased as the bath- room door swung shut behind her. "What's up?"
Ivy bent down to make sure all the stalls were empty. When she gave a thumbs-up, Sophia reached into her black cat backpack and pulled out a magazine. She held it out to Olivia with both hands.
It was the new issue of Vamp. And she was on the cover! The picture was of Ivy and Olivia, looking into each other's eyes in the ornate mirror in Ivy's guest bathroom. The headline read, TWINS TO DIE FOR.
"If anyone in our community didn't suspect you knew our secret before," Sophia said proudly, "they sure will now. But nothing swings public opinion like the cover of Vamp."
Olivia grabbed the magazine and flipped it open. She landed right in the middle of a series of glossy pictures of her and her sister, each coupled with a little paragraph of text.
"It's eight pages long," Ivy enthused, and she and Sophia gathered around Olivia so they could all look at the same time.
There was Ivy playing the piano, while Olivia sat on top of it.
"That was such a killer idea," Sophia murmured.
There was Ivy in her cocktail dress, trying to pop a huge round pink bubble gum bubble that had been photoshopped in over Olivia's mouth. "So cool!" said Olivia.
And there they were in front of the stairs, looking totally glammed out in their burgundy and green gowns. The last spread was the grand finale: a collage of artsy black-and-white photos of the twins together in the mirror.
"'Ivy Vega and Olivia Abbott share a bond that only blood sisters can,'" Ivy read over Olivia's shoulder. "'They laugh at each other's jokes and cry at each other's hardships. Now that they have discovered each other, they are, in a word, inseparable.'"
"Awww!" Olivia gushed. She took over reading.
"'These remarkable young women have something to teach us all,'" she intoned, "'about what is possible between humans and vampires.
For when there is no fear, there can be love - despite all differences.'" On the verge of tears, Olivia looked up again and saw that her sister's eyes were filling up, too.
There was only one paragraph left, but Olivia couldn't go on. Sophia gently took the magazine from her hands.
"'In a matter of weeks,'" Sophia read carefully, "'Ivy will move to Europe with her father. Having only just found each other, she and her twin shall be torn asunder yet again. But now, even distance is not enough to keep them apart'" - Sophia paused dramatically - "'for they are twins for eternity.'"
Olivia and her sister gave each other a huge hug.
"I'm going to miss you so much," Olivia whispered.
"I can't wait to make my father read this." Ivy sniffled defiantly. "Georgia sent me a full set of photos, as a souvenir to hang in my new room."
"And Kong sent me a full set of photos for my portfolio," Sophia added.
"So I can keep this copy?" asked Olivia.
"No," Sophia said abruptly, taking the magazine back. She reached into her bag and pulled out a much thinner issue. "This one's for you. Special delivery from Georgia Huntingdon."
"What's the difference?" Olivia asked.
"No references to you know what," Sophia answered. Olivia flipped it open, and saw that the only article inside was the one about her and her sister - and even there, lots of text had been deleted.
Olivia frowned. "Can't I have a regular one? I promise I won't show anyone."
Ivy shook her head. "Yours is better."
"There's a reason we call our periodicals the 'black papers,'" Sophia explained. "They're printed on special paper with special ink, so the moment they're exposed to sunlight, the pages turn completely black. And even if they never see the light of day, they blacken in a week anyway."
At least the final spread of Olivia and her sister in the mirror remained intact. They'd only changed one line so it simply said, "These remarkable young women have something to teach us all about what is possible."
I'll treasure this for as long as I live, Olivia thought happily.
The issues of Vamp concealed again, Olivia followed Ivy and Sophia out of the bathroom. They were hurrying to first-period class when Olivia saw two sixth-grade girls charging toward them, arm in arm. One was dressed all in pink and the other was totally clad in black, but in every other way, their outfits were identical.
The one in pink cried out in excitement when she spotted Ivy and Olivia. "Me and my best friend, Marta, planned our outfits," she said, her braces glinting as she spoke, "so we could be twin opposites, just like you! I'm Olivia."
"And I'm Ivy!" her black-clad friend squealed.
Olivia didn't even get a chance to respond before her sister dragged her away down the hall.
"And people think I'm a bloodsucker," Ivy said, clearly weirded out by their cultish look-alikes.
"Well, I think it's fun," Olivia said proudly.
Sophia just shook her head in disbelief.
Suddenly Olivia heard a familiar voice calling her name. She spun around to see Camilla chasing them down the hall, waving a newspaper in the air above her blond curls.
"Have you two seen this?" Camilla cried, thrusting the newspaper at them.
"What?" Olivia and Ivy asked at the same time.
"You made the front page of the Gazette!"
Camilla announced. "They reprinted Toby's article from the Scribe word for word!"
Camilla handed them each a copy of the local newspaper - and sure enough, there were the matching pictures of Ivy and Olivia that had appeared in the school paper the previous week.
"I almost tackled my dad for it when I saw it this morning over the breakfast table," Camilla panted.
"Where'd you get the second copy?" Ivy asked.
Camilla blushed. "I begged my next door neighbor for it, in case you both needed one."
"Thanks," said Ivy, sounding genuinely touched.
"You're the best, Camilla," Olivia said with a grin, gazing down at the front page of the Gazette.
"Who would have thought," she marveled, "that so many people would be interested in our story?"
"Not me," Ivy groaned.
Later, at lunch, Olivia and Ivy were sitting with Brendan, Sophia, and Camilla, surrounded by a mob of people holding out newspapers and begging for autographs. Ivy looked like she wanted to crawl under the table.