"Billy is asking a lot of questions about Stormy," I whispered to Alexander as I took his hand and hurried to the car.
"Like what?"
Billy caught up to me. "Hey, Alexander, Stormy."
The Sterling siblings greeted my brother.
"Thanks for the portrait of me and Stormy," Billy said to Alexander. "That was awesome!"
"What portrait?" Stormy asked.
"Alexander made a picture of you and me at the dance. The same one that Raven took of us. It didn"t turn out, so I was really lucky you made this."
He pulled out his phone. "I"d like to take another picture of us," Billy said. "And this time I"d like Alexander to take it. I bet he"ll do a better job than you."
We all froze. None of us knew what to do. Take the picture and have it not turn out again?
"We"ll do that when we get home," I said, pushing my brother out the door. "We need to get to Shirley"s before there"s a line."
I tried to talk as much as I could on the way to Shirley"s Bakery. I didn"t want my brother bringing up to Stormy that she was missing from his photo.
"So are you and Valentine good friends?" Billy asked after we got to Shirley"s and ordered. We were walking along the downtown square and taking in the evening air.
"Yes, I"ve known him most of my life."
"Do you hang out a lot?"
"I don"t have many friends at home. So I"d say yes, he"s one. But since I came to this town, I have even more friends," she said with a twinkle in her eyes.
"Maybe we could get together tomorrow," Billy said suddenly.
"Tomorrow?" she asked. "Maybe later... How about after sunset?"
"I was thinking before. We could hang outside. Henry has a tree house. It will be better to see it during the daylight hours."
"I think I have something planned with Alexander."
"Then how about the next afternoon?" he pressed.
"Don"t you have school?" she asked.
"We could meet right afterward."
"I get tutored by Jameson."
"I could come and watch," he said.
"Don"tpanI you understand? I can"t see you then. I want to, but I can"t."
"Why not?" he urged.
"I have something planned every day!" she shouted.
"What"s going on?" Alexander asked.
"Nothing." Stormy took a bite of her ice cream.
"I was just seeing if Stormy could hang out with me and Henry during the day," Billy said. "We always go out at night. I"d like us to hang out in the day sometime, instead."
"That"s not possible," she said.
"Why?"
"Stormy will be going back to Romania soon," Alexander said flatly.
"I will?" Stormy said, surprised.
"She will?" Billy and I asked sadly, in unison.
"I"d like her to spend the days with me," Alexander said. "You know, to catch up before she leaves."
"I"m not ready to leave," she said.
"You can"t stay here forever," Alexander replied.
"I want to stay here," she demanded, "with Billy and Henry and Valentine and Raven."
I felt touched that she felt the need to be with me.
"We can talk about this later," Alexander said softly.
"No, we can discuss this now. I"m not going home!" Stormy was getting mad, and I wasn"t sure what to say or do.
"Well, you have to sometime," Alexander said. "We"ll talk about it when we get home."
"I don"t have to leave now," she said. "And you can"t make me."
Stormy hurried off and sat on a bench outside the bakery.
"I"m sorry-" Billy said to Alexander. "I shouldn"t have brought all this up. We can hang out whenever it"s convenient," he said. "Just as long as she can stay here."
My brother joined her, and the two sat on a park bench outside a coffee shop. I noticed Billy fiddling with something in his back pocket.
He pulled out the mirror he"d taken from Henry"s telescope. I wasn"t sure what he was going to do with it, but I had a pretty good idea.
"Don"t you dare," I whispered to him.
"Why not?" he asked, faking naivete.
"Because I said so." I sat down next to him.
Stormy was busy licking the dripping ice cream off her cone.
"What will I see?" he asked. "Or not see?"
"If you do this, I"ll break your fingers," I threatened in his ear. "You"ll never play a video game again."
"What"s going on?" Stormy asked.
"Just sibling talk," I said.
"Oh, I know how that is."
"Maybe you should go stand by Alexander," I tried to prompt her.
"I like it here," she said.
"I just wanted to see your reaction," Billy said. "I wanted to see if you already knew. But I sensed that you did."
"Knew what?" I asked.
"Look up there," he said.
He motioned to a mirror hanging on the corner of the building. The kind of mirror that is used to help cars see the pedestrians before they came out of the alley. It was angled so that we could see the bench we were sitting on. I saw Billy and mysel f, but the seat next to Billy, where Stormy was now sitting, was empty.
My mouth dropped almost to the cement sidewalk below us.
My brother didn"t say a word.
"I"m not leaving," we heard Stormy say. "My friends are here."
Billy gave me a knowing glance, then smiled sweetly at Stormy.
"I love this ice cream," she said. She held her cone out to Billy. "Want a bite?"
"A bite?" he asked, staring at me. "No, I don"t think I do, but Raven? She might."
16 Secrets and Sundaes.
There was a lot of tension between Billy and me as Alexander drove us home. I didn"t know if he"d say anything to Alexander and Stormy about his discovery or what he"d say if he did.
Hey, Stormy-why don"t you show up in pictures or reflect in mirrors? I heard him say in my mind.
I kept the conversation moving, and I bantered on about mundane topics and recent movies I"d seen. Anything to keep my brother from talking about what he"d seen-or rather, hadn"t seen.
When we arrived home, we were saying our good-byes when Billy spoke up.
"I want that picture, remember?" my brother said to me. "Especially if Stormy is leaving soon, I want a picture of us together."
"I"m not leaving soon," she said for us all to hear.
"It"s late," I interjected. "They have to leave. Maybe next time."
But Billy had already placed his phone in Alexander"s hand.
Stormy gladly stood next to Billy. It was as if she liked playing the part of the happy mortal.
Alexander looked at me as if I knew what to do. I turned away in frustration.
Alexander took the picture, then handed me the phone. I tried to hang on to it but Billy s.n.a.t.c.hed it from me before I could delete the picture.
"Good night, Stormy," Billy said. "Good night, Alexander."
"Good night," they both said.
Billy went inside, and I knew if I stayed for a long good-night kiss, he"d have that picture already plastered on a social network site.
It was one thing to have Becky know the truth about Alexander and the other vampires" real ident.i.ties-but quite another for my little brother to know. Could he keep a secret? I"m sure he had already told Henry by now. The two must have been concocting their experiments like young Einsteins.
I blew Alexander a kiss and ran inside.
In the family room, my mom was reading a magazine and my dad was watching college football. Billy was already upstairs in his room. I ran up the stairs and charged over to my brother and tried to grab his phone away from him.
"What are you going toe yt Billy sn do?" he asked. "Kill me?"
"That would be too easy."
"What are you two doing?" I heard my mom call from downstairs.
"So you admit it?" he questioned.
"I admit nothing."
"You saw what I just saw in the alley mirror," Billy said. "Or rather, what I didn"t see. You can"t explain that away."
"I don"t know what you saw," I said. "You need gla.s.ses."
"I have twenty-twenty vision," he a.s.serted.
Billy was fiddling with the phone, and I was ready to pounce.
"What reason could there be for not seeing Stormy in a mirror?" he asked.