Fashion Frightmare!. Sienna Mercer
. . .’ Olivia began.
Penny giggled as she closed her locker. ‘The one thing we can tell you is: it’s really kind of . . .’
‘“Altegular”!’ Amelia finished.
They both burst into laughter as they linked arms and walked away down the hall, leaving Olivia staring after them.
‘Altegular’? What does that mean?
‘Excuse me.’ It was the janitor again, his voice gruff and his face hidden under a ragged old baseball cap as he stepped up to mop the floor around Olivia’s feet.
‘Oh, sorry.’ Sighing, Olivia started to head back to her own locker.
Then she stopped. Wait a minute. The janitor wasn’t stooped any more. In fact, she was certain she recognised his posture from somewhere . . .
Narrowing her eyes, she turned to stare at him. Lowering his mop, he turned right back to her and raised the brim of his cap.
Olivia’s breath stopped in her throat. That’s no janitor!
Even with make-up carefully applied to ‘age up’ his face, she would have known those blue eyes anywhere.
It was her far-too-famous boyfriend, Jackson Caulfield!
‘Oh, really. ’ Olivia tried to scowl, but she couldn’t help laughing. ‘Has your career really slipped this far, Jackson? Is Amy getting you cleaning jobs now between shoots?’
‘Ahem.’ Still speaking in his gruff, old man’s voice, Jackson gave a wink. ‘I don’t think you should be openly flirting with a school janitor, do you?’
‘Whatever.’ Rolling her eyes, Olivia walked back to her locker and pushed the door wide open, so that no one else could see her expression. ‘So,’ she said, through the locker door, ‘what are you doing here, really?’
‘What do you think?’ Groups of students walked past behind them, but Jackson’s voice was too low for any of them to overhear. ‘I got into town early, and I wanted to see you. But for obvious reasons, it didn’t seem like a good idea to be noticed coming into the school.’
‘Hmm.’ Olivia raised her eyebrows. ‘Do you know, I think there’s a part of you that actually enjoys the trouble you can cause!’
‘I just like the practice,’ Jackson said cheerfully. ‘It’s good to try out different roles.’ He shifted to mop the floor on her other side. ‘So, what time does the event start tonight?’
‘Seven-thirty,’ Olivia said. It was a good reminder: she started packing her bag as she spoke. ‘Just remember, you can expect some chaos as we try to get into the museum.’
‘That’s fine.’ Jackson shrugged. ‘It can’t be any tougher than that crowd at the premiere for The Groves . . . remember?’
‘How could I forget?’ She remembered feeling like she might pass out from the crowds pressing in on them that evening. Their excitement had been overwhelming.
‘Just wait,’ Jackson said. ‘I bet the one we have for “ES” is going to be an even bigger deal.’
‘Oh.’ Olivia gulped. I hadn’t even thought of that.
Jackson was talking about Eternal Sunset, the film they were currently shooting. At its premiere, Olivia would be walking the red carpet as the lead actress of a major movie for the very first time – and it would be the last time for at least five years, since she’d made the choice to put her acting career on hold until she had finished high school.
Would her big moment at the premiere feel exciting? Or just bittersweet?
Uh-oh. She suddenly realised that Jackson had been talking through her moment of distraction. ‘Huh?’
‘Olivia Abbott, are you bored of me already?’ He raised his cap to give her a look of mock-offence.
She lightly swatted his arm. ‘You know that’s not it!’
Then she blushed, as she looked up and caught at least three other students staring at her from around the corridor. I guess they weren’t expecting to see me hit an elderly janitor. Oops!
‘I was just saying, it won’t be long before we’ve wrapped on “ES”,’ said Jackson. ‘Final scenes shoot in November.’
‘Right.’ Olivia sighed. Life would become so much easier once she didn’t have to balance schoolwork and filming any more . . . but she couldn’t be completely happy about that, because it would mean she’d get much less time with Jackson.
‘Anyway . . . I’ll see you tonight.’ He glanced left and right under the brim of his cap and nodded decisively. ‘I’d better get back to work. I see a corner over there that’s filthy. ’
‘What are you doing ?’ Olivia stared at him as he started forward. ‘You’re not actually paid to clean the school, remember?’
Jackson shrugged. ‘I can never leave a job unfinished. Anyway, you probably ought to rescue Ivy.’
‘Rescue –? What are you talking about?’
‘Oh, I couldn’t possibly ruin the surprise.’ Jackson gave her a wry, amused grin. ‘You have to take a walk across the quad and see this one for yourself. Besides, you wouldn’t believe me if I did tell you!’
It was such a familiar grin – and she’d missed him so much – that Olivia couldn’t help herself. She started forwards, her arms rising instinctively . . .
Then she pulled herself back, just in time. No way. It was weird enough for her to be seen hitting the janitor. If anyone saw her hug him, too, then they would really have questions!
So she only whispered, ‘Later,’ smiled, and turned away.
Time to rescue Ivy – whatever that means!
She hurried down the hall towards the quad, ignoring the students shooting her curious glances. As she stepped outside into the cloudy autumn afternoon, though, she was startled to see the actual janitor, Jonny, leaning against an outer wall and taking deep breaths.
‘Um . . .’ Hesitantly, she started towards him. She’d never spoken to him before, but she couldn’t just ignore his distress. ‘Excuse me, but are you OK? You don’t look very well.’
Hastily straightening, Jonny smoothed down his grey hair with shaking fingers. ‘I feel like I’m going crazy,’ he mumbled. ‘I’ve been walking the halls of this school for the last twenty minutes, getting ready to begin my end-of-the-day work, but . . .’ He shook his head in disbelief. ‘They’re already spotless ! Either I’ve come down with serious amnesia, or the students have actually started cleaning up after themselves . . . and I don’t know what would be scarier!’
Stifling a laugh, Olivia ducked her head so that he couldn’t read her expression. ‘Um . . . the teachers did ask us all to respect the school a bit more,’ she mumbled, and moved away quickly, before he could say anything else.
As she walked across the quad, she kept her eyes open for Ivy, looking left and right, past groups of goths and bunnies and . . .
No. I can’t believe it! Gasping, Olivia came to a sudden halt as she finally spotted her twin sister.
I know Ivy’s been struggling to keep Reiko entertained . . . but I would never have expected this!
Ivy spotted Olivia out of the corner of her eye, but she couldn’t wave, because her hands were full. She couldn’t even nod at her sister, because she had to keep her eyes on the ball, of all ridiculous things.
She