Table of Contents
Also by ADELE GRIFFIN
Vampire Island
The Knavehearts Curse
For Sara
SO GOOD, ITS SICK
Ive got gossip! announced Lexie Livingstone. She and her best friend, Pete Stubbe, were enjoying luncha peanut-butter-and-pickle sandwich for Pete and a four-berry medley for Lexiein the schools courtyard. Parrish High School kids were allowed to eat lunch outside until it got too cold. But today, New York City weather was mellow, with just a nip of autumn in the air.
Pete stopped chewing. Tell me! His yellow eyes gleamed.
Mina Pringle called me last night and Lexie swallowed back an excitement hiccup. She wants me to write speeches for her campaign to be ninth-grade class president.
Congratulations. Youve lost your mind, said Pete. Why would you want to write speeches for your enemy?
Pete! Lexie reached out to pinch Petes arm.
Dont you get it? Mina Pringle has finished being suspicious of my hybrid-vampire ways. She wants to be my friend. Shes waving the olive branch. Shes burying the hatchet. Shes
Shes sneakier than a diamond-backed python, said Pete, and I havent trusted her since fourth-grade show-and-tell, when she told the class she was the heiress to a potato-chip fortune. Its the only time I can remember when a kid had to apologize for making a false show-and-tell statement.
He shook his head in disgust as he peeled the crust from his bread in a single curl. Thenmaking sure nobody was lookinghe used his advanced werewolf powers to fling the crust far over the iron gate, all the way across Central Park to FDR Drive, where a skinny stray dog was snuffling for lunch. The dog yipped for joy as he snapped up the snack.
Lexie crunched her lunch bag and popped in her retainer. Dont be that way, Pete. Remember, Jealousy is the jaundice of the soul. While Lexie could always trust herself to find the perfect quote, she also knew that jealousy was part of Petes werewolf identity since wolves are territorial and dont like to share anything.
Especially not friends.
Working on a campaign is kind of a big deal, continued Lexie, especially since Mr. Fellows wants us to learn about politics. Therell be some major debates and stump speeches and
Yeah, yeah, I know all about it. Im voting for Neil Needleburger. That phony Mina Pringle would make a human stinkbug of a president. And if you werent so blinded by wanting her to like you, youd see that, too.
From the look in Petes eye, Lexie decided it would be best to drop the whole subject. And Pete wasnt the only kid in the school who didnt adore Mina.
Later, walking home from school, Lexie decided that, going forward, shed keep her Mina friendship separate from her Pete friendship. After all, Pete had every right to be jealous. Lexie and Pete had been BFFs since the Livingstones had arrived in the New World five years ago, ready to trade their old identities as bloodsuckers for the higher hope of turning human. The Stubbes had just moved from the Old World, too, and were trying to rid themselves of their wolfish ways. Lexie was the only hybrid vampire and Pete was the only hybrid werewolf in their whole school, and their unusual powers were their biggest secret from the rest of the class. So they had a lot in common.
R U free? Lexies cell phone buzzed the text message. Her heart raced. She knew that number.
YES!! she wrote back.
1057 CPW / 15D
K! Lexie texted, turning a sharp V as she switched direction, heading for Central Park West. Quickly, she wrote her parents to tell them that she was dropping by Minas apartment for a school project.
Crossing Central Park, her large, black-booted feet kicking up piles of wet yellow leaves, Lexie turned up her face to the sun. This was the first fall that shed been able to bask in sunshine. No more cringing from the light of day. No more reaching for the XPF, prescription-strength sun-block. Yes, those old vampire traits were dying off. Shed worked hard, and shed earned it.
My mortality, Lexie mused poetically, is like a fresh coat of paint over my cracked and peeling vampire soul.
Unlike her little sister, Maddy, or her kid brother, Hudson, careful Lexie always had focused intently on her human studies. She hardly ever used any of the vamp tricks that the Argos frowned upon. By next summer, she might just be ready to wear that sequin-trim bikini shed bought two years ago as inspiration. Which would be right on time for Mina Pringles annual Fourth of July roof-deck party, which Lexie had never been invited to.
In fact, for the past five years, Lexie had overheard the supercool girls talk way too much about Minas swanky get-togethers, posh birthday bashes, and exclusive slumber parties. Now here I am, thought Lexie as leaves fluttered up in front of her like startled butterflies. In with the in crowd! Im Mina Pringles speechwriter!
Seriously, this was a big deal.
Of course, Mina is lucky to have me, too, Lexie reminded herself as she rode the fancy elevator in Minas building to the fifteenth floor. My health essay on dark leafy greens was nothing short of magnificent. My biology report on the dating habits of snails versus slugs could only be termed thrilling. And who will forget my extra-credit, after-school presentation on the short life of doomed urban vampire poet Fun K. Blood?
Though the only person who would never forget it was Pete, since he was the only one whod shown up to hear it.
The little kid who opened 15Ds door looked like Mina but younger. Same ballerina legs, same yellow curls, same pout. Meeen-a! she yelled. Theres a super-skinny, scary-pale girlie out here. Is she your friend?
Thats my speechwriter, called Mina, amid a babble of other chatting voices, most of whom Lexie recognized from school. Let her in, Nina.
Nina allowed the door to swing open, and Lexie followed Ninas lemony-curly head through the apartment. Such a contrast to the Livingstones spooky townhouse, which her family had inherited after her sister, Maddy, had sent the previous, evil vampire owners crumbling to their deaths.
The Livingstone house was dark and mildewy and smelled like feet. The Pringle home was airy and fragrant and smelled like peaches.
My vampire heritage can be a real drag, grumped Lexie. Theres nothing chic about my creepy house, my fangs, my ew-normous, double-jointed hands and feet, and having people like Nina Pringle look at me like Im a three-headed spider.
At least the rest of her classmates didnt act so horrified to see her.
Hi, Lexie, they chorused once Lexie was deposited in a chair in the middle of the Pringles plushy, peachy velvet den, where all Minas friends, including her best friend, Lucy Loo Susskind, were creating poster boards for Minas campaign.
Hey, not so fast. Mina spun Lexies wheeled chair around and pushed her toward a desk in the darkest corner of the den, far from the others. Youre my speechwriter. You need peace and quiet. I want you to have the best, peacefulest spot in the room.
Thanks. And then, because she couldnt resist, Lexie quoted, The art of being kind / Is all the sad world needs. Though she couldnt help a longing look at the other girls or reaching out to snatch a crumb-top peach bar from a tray as she wheeled past. The world was certainly less sad if you were eating a peach bar.
