‘I mean shut down – no female lead equals no filming,’ Ivy replied.
Sophia nodded and shivered. Or shivered and nodded. It was so cold out that Olivia couldn’t tell which.
It had barely been half an hour since she’d had the fruit cup with Jackson. Since she hadn’t found Ivy, she had decided to make her way to the diner to watch some scenes. But when she’d arrived, everyone was hurrying away.
‘What happened?’ Olivia asked. The girls stood off to the side as other crew members and actors milled around.
‘Jessica quit the movie,’ Ivy said.
‘Never to return,’ Sophia added.
Olivia sneaked a peek through the diner windows and saw Jackson listening to his manager, who was shouting at someone sitting in a chair labelled ‘Director'. Jackson looked really annoyed.
‘Does this mean the movie is over?’ Olivia wondered. ‘Will Ja– everyone be leaving town?’
‘It might be for the best . . .’ Ivy said. Something across the parking lot had caught her attention. She craned her neck for a better look and then hurried over to the barriers.
Olivia looked over and realised she was heading towards Brendan and his seven-year-old sister Bethany, who were waving at them from outside the barriers.
As the girls approached, Bethany blurted out, ‘Did you get to meet Jackson?’ She looked adorable in her black puffy jacket and denim skirt with black leggings.
‘Hey, Brendan,’ Ivy said. ‘Hi, Bethany. Isn’t Jackson a bit bunny for you?’
‘Duh, Jackson is above all labels,’ Bethany replied, flipping her long black hair. ‘So did you meet him? Did you?’
Olivia smiled. ‘I got to have lunch with him.’
‘Eeee!’ Bethany squealed, causing several people to jump. ‘Are you two going to be on TV together?’ she asked more quietly.
Olivia laughed. ‘I don’t think so.’
‘What was he like?’ Bethany wanted to know.
‘Pretty normal,’ Olivia said, remembering their Count Vira conversation.
‘Sounds like you’ve been having fun,’ Brendan said. ‘But what about breakfast?’
Right on cue, Ivy’s stomach let out a gurgle that a bog monster would envy. ‘I completely forgot. You went to the Juice Bar!’
‘And came right back here, waiting all day for my beautiful girlfriend with a now gravely cold Breakfast Bun.’ Brendan tried to look hurt, but his face was twitching into a smile, even as Ivy was apologising.
‘I’m just kidding.’ Brendan took a squashed wrapped sandwich from his bag and waggled it in the air. ‘When I couldn’t find you in the crowd, I went home to get Bethany and may have enjoyed the latest episode of Night of the Deadly Dead in the warm.’
Ivy was almost drooling over the sandwich. Olivia laughed as Ivy leaned over the barrier, planted a quick kiss on Brendan’s cheek and grabbed the packet from his hand. She devoured the bun in three big bites.
Sophia raised one eyebrow. ‘Thanks for sharing.’
‘Oops,’ Ivy said, her mouth full of bacon and red sauce.
‘You can have my Count Cocoa Chew.’ Bethany held out a candy bar to Sophia, but pulled it away as soon as Sophia reached for it. ‘If you get me inside.’
Olivia felt bad. ‘But the movie has . . . uh . . . paused for a minute. They’ve asked everyone to leave.’
‘OK, then,’ Bethany said. ‘Just promise to try to get me something that Jackson has touched.’
‘I promise,’ Sophia replied, ‘to get Olivia to do it for me.’
Bethany narrowed her eyes, looking from Sophia to Olivia. ‘OK, deal.’ She handed it over to Sophia.
‘How about we –’ Brendan began.
‘Now,’ Bethany interrupted. ‘Tell me everything!’
As Ivy explained all about the set, with Sophia butting in and correcting her on the details, Olivia saw Brendan’s face falter a little. She hoped he wasn’t feeling left out with all the movie excitement. Maybe there would be a way to get him on set tomorrow – that is, if the set was still there tomorrow.
That night, Ivy sat in front of Olivia’s computer and clicked on the moon icon to get to the usual all-black screen with three big Gothic letters:
VVV
‘Good thing they let you have a chip,’ Ivy said as she clicked the Vs seven times in the precise pattern that would bring up the password prompt. ‘I’d never last two nights in a row without being able to get on to the Vorld Vide Veb.’
Olivia was in her pink pyjamas, sorting through her closet trying to find something to wear for tomorrow. ‘I couldn’t figure out what was happening when that guy showed up at our house, pretending to be a computer repair man.’
Since her official initiation by the Vampire Round Table, Olivia had been granted all the privileges of the vampire world, including access to the super-secret Vorld Vide Veb, which required a special computer chip to even get to the home page.
‘It didn’t help that he was wearing a Hawaiian shirt and sandals with socks,’ Olivia went on as Ivy tapped in her user name and password. ‘He didn’t look a thing like a vamp.’
‘It just goes to show that you never can tell,’ said Ivy, wondering if Olivia would take the hint. Think Jackson! Ivy wanted to shout but Sophia was right. She needed proof.
A riddle popped up and Ivy read it aloud. ‘What happens when a vampire gets a cold?’
‘Ooh, I know that one,’ Olivia said. ‘Lots of coffin.’
‘Ha, ha.’ Ivy typed it in and the MOONLIGHT search screen appeared with its tag line ‘Illuminate the darkness,’ underneath the entry box.