Re-Vamped! Read Free

cranberry juice from the fridge as her mom took down a glass.
“Is she getting over some sort of illness?” her mom whispered.
    “No,”
Olivia said.
    “I
knew it!” Her mother gasped, putting her hand to her mouth. “Poor girl.
Somebody died, right?”
    My
parents have got to get out more, Olivia thought. “No, Mom, nobody died. And Ivy’s not training to be a mime,
either. She’s a Goth.”
    “Didn’t
Serena Star do a show about those people?” Mrs. Abbott asked.
    “It’s
just a style choice,” Olivia explained.
    Her
mom nodded slowly, taking this in. “Do Goths eat zucchini?” she asked.
    “Yes,
Mother,” Olivia replied. Then she headed out of the kitchen with Ivy’s drink.
    A few
minutes later, Mr. Abbott was staring at Olivia and her sister across the
dinner table. “I wouldn’t have noticed at first, but you two really do look
exactly alike!” he said in amazement. “Like yin and yang.”
    “Like
Superman and Clark Kent,” Ivy agreed.
    Olivia’s
mom set down the last casserole dish and pulled off her oven mitts. As she sat,
she looked from Ivy to Olivia and smiled warmly. “Like . . . peanut butter and
jelly?” she tried.
    Everybody
laughed. All at once, the room thawed, and Olivia’s parents started showering
Ivy with questions. Did she have any extracurriculars? (School newspaper.) What
did her dad do for a living? (Interior designer.) What was her favorite color?
(Black. Duh!)
    Then
Olivia’s mom asked, “So, Ivy, do you have a boyfriend ?” in that weird
way mastered by moms everywhere.
    Ivy
squirmed in her seat as Olivia answered for her excitedly. “Yes! Brendan
Daniels! He’s awesome!” Wow ! she thought as Ivy shot her a look of
playful annoyance. It’s sort of nice not to be the one in the hot seat.
    “All
right! Enough about me!” Ivy put her hands in the air. “I have some questions,
too.”
    “Ask
us anything,” Olivia’s mom challenged.
    “What
about Olivia’s adoption?” Ivy asked eagerly.
    Maybe
Ivy will find out something I haven’t been able to! Olivia thought.
    “It
was the happiest day of our lives,” Olivia’s dad said proudly.
    “Did
the agency tell you anything about our biological parents?” Ivy probed.
    “No.”
Olivia’s mom shrugged. “All they knew was what was written on the note that
accompanied the baby: Olivia’s name and her date of birth.” A strange
expression flickered briefly across Ivy’s eyes.
    “Must
be just like the note in your own file,” Olivia’s mom guessed.
    Ivy
shook her head. “I don’t have a note. I don’t even have a file!”
    Mrs.
Abbott’s face flushed with sympathy, and before Olivia knew it, her mom was
rushing around the table to give Ivy a hug. To Olivia’s surprise, Ivy didn’t
stiffen. In fact, she actually seemed comforted by it. Of course, Olivia’s mom
was a master of the art of hugging.
    “I
feel like I have a whole new daughter,” Olivia’s mom declared proudly as she
began clearing the table a little while later. She beamed at Ivy. “I can’t wait
to see more of Olivia’s other half.”
    Olivia
watched for Ivy’s reaction, half expecting her sister to look like a deer
caught in headlights. Olivia loved her parents, but they could be super
overbearing sometimes.
    Ivy
looked genuinely touched though. “That sounds killer.” She grinned.
    The
next thing Olivia knew, her father had a mountain of photo albums in his arms.
    “Please,
no,” Olivia whined. “Ivy doesn’t want to see pictures. Do you, Ivy?”
    “Wait
until you see Olivia dressed as a green kangaroo in her kindergarten play. She
was so cute !” her mom squealed.
    “As a
matter of fact,” said Ivy, shooting Olivia a devilish grin as she followed Mr.
Abbott into the living room, “I would like to see that.”
    Three
photo albums and hundreds of embarrassing photos later, Olivia was pretty much
at the end of her rope. To her relief, a car horn sounded outside.
    Olivia
leaped to her feet and looked out the living room