"Don't worry," Olivia whispered. "Your secret is safe with me." She slid the packet from the newspaper. A pungent aroma made her eyes water. "Ugh. You kept this in the back of your closet with all your smelly track shoes, didn't you?"
"How could you tell?"
Olivia rolled her eyes. Jace snorted. "It's all right," she said with a grin." I'll air it out. Just don't tell anybody you gave this packet to me. Nobody at all. You understand?"
Jace narrowed his eyes and looked askance at her. "Not even the tall, dark and slightly vampiric Hernando?"
"Especially him." She pouted playfully and gently nudged him off their porch. "Now, on your way, young man. Gotta make a living and pay for all those college textbooks, right?"
"Yeah, right." Jace chuckled and went on his way with a quick glance back at her. "Good luck, Olivia."
Why did he wish me good luck? Olivia had felt a bit apprehensive. Had she given their spying plan away? Nah, it was just nerves.
Deep down Olivia felt confident Jace wouldn't reveal her secret. They'd been buddies since kindergarten. He'd never snitch on her. She'd gone inside and made a cup of hot spearmint tea and then returned to her room to study the packet's contents.
"What are you looking at?" Moira Brown had barged into Olivia's room an hour later. It was two days after Hernando had left for the remainder of his New Year world's tour, and her mother had been acting suspicious of Olivia's movements the entire time. "Did you get a letter from a college saying you should come and visit?"
"Uh, yeah, yeah I did." Olivia had quickly shoved the official acceptance, printed on beautifully gold embossed stationery, into her small spiral notebook where she had been taking notes on the details in Lauren's application.
"What's the name of the school?"
"Uh, Harvard." Lame answer, but I wasn't planning on being interrupted, now was I?
"Harvard, you say?" Her mother sat down on the edge of Olivia's bed and sighed. "How prestigious. Are you looking into their law school?"
"Of course." Olivia pushed all the papers off her bed and tried to kick them under it. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll get ready for church."
Moira raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Never knew you to be so eager to get ready for church, but I can take a hint. Give me a hand up."
She leaned on her knees to raise herself up from Olivia's low bed. Olivia slid off the end and tried assisting her mother to a stand with a tug on her shoulders, but her foot slipped on the edge of her spiral notebook, opening it up and revealing the letter from BloodDark. Moira's gaze dropped and focused on the shiny letterhead.
"Wow, what fancy paper Harvard uses for form letters."
"They are Ivy League." Olivia forced a chuckle and dipped to scoop up the notebook and letter. She held them tightly against her chest.
Her mother slowly straightened up. "You're not hiding something from me...Are you, Olivia?"
"No. What makes you think I'd hide anything from you?" Olivia pulled open her desk drawer, stuffing the papers into it and slamming it shut with her hip. The drawer jammed. She bit her lip, then forced a smile.
Moira frowned. "It's the little things. Like acting like you've been caught with your hand in the cookie jar. Olivia, you can trust me. I'm your mother. You can tell me if something is bothering you."
"Nothing is bothering me, Mom. Just...just give me some space."
"All right." Her mother sniffed. "I know where I'm not wanted."
Oh, why am I always hurting her when I don't mean to. "Mom, please don't be angry. It's just—"
"I'm unnecessary to your current plans. It's all right, I'm going." Moira turned to the door. "Don't forget someday you might actually need a mom and I won't be here. Don't take what you have for granted."
Olivia's stomach flip-flopped. The guilt will never go away, either, if I don't come back in one piece from my spy assignment.
"I hope we can trust you to take care of yourself while your dad and I are off to the history conference in Des Moines this week," her mother added.
"I'll be fine, Mom. You know I'm able to cope with worse. It's not like I've not been on my own before, right?"
A look of fear and remembrance flashed in Moira's eyes. "Yes, you are certainly capable. Harvard isn't quite as far away as...that other world is, now is it?" Her mother dashed from the room and down the stairs.
"Mom, wait, please." She can't even say BloodDark. It causes her such pain. Olivia followed after her mother and paused at the top of the steps. Moira was already downstairs and halfway to the kitchen.
She'd make it up to her mom later. The acceptance letter was jammed in her desk drawer and needed careful extraction. Olivia knew time was of the essence. She had a job to do.
"Lauren thinks she was rejected outright by the Alphans and is heartbroken, but she'll get over it," Olivia said simply, her heart feeling sad and sorry for deceiving her own parents.
"Very devious." Annara nodded. "Is Lauren's family to be trusted?"
Olivia nodded. "I think so. They're not going to tell anyone. They don't know exactly what I wanted with the letter, but Mrs. Petrowski's grateful someone else is willing to check things out with the Pure Bloods before her precious child dedicated her life to becoming a vampire bride."
"I never will understand Earthers—I mean humans." Annara shook her head. "In spite of our shared ancestry, it's like we come from two very different worlds."
Olivia flashed a crooked smile. "We do. We really do."
*****
Several hours later, the transformation was complete. Olivia turned around and examined her new look in the hallway's full-length mirror.
"I don't see what's so great about being blond" she murmured to herself. "I look like a dandelion. It brings out the sallow undertones in my skin, too. A yellowy-brown dandelion with unbecoming straightened hair.
