Chapter 1.
Please Review.
No Flames.
Rebecca Hawkins, in her night clothes, a long sleeved dark blue nightgown that reached her knees, trudged sleepily into the breakfast room, slid into her chair, and rested her left cheek on the cool stone table. She wished she was still in her coffin. Monday mornings were the worst.
"Good morning, Rebecca." her grandfather said, placing a bowl next to her head.
"Shh." Rebecca murmured, her eyes closed. "I'm still sleeping."
"It's your favorite." Arthur coaxed. "Marshmallow Platelets."
Rebecca peered at the little white marshmallows and maroon bits bobbing in their milky sea. "Thanks." she mumbled.
Her grandfather, already dressed for work in his usual outfit, a black suit, a white blue dress shirt with French cuffs, and black dress shoes sipped his tea and picked up the remote control. "There is nothing better for a young person's dull morning mind." he said. "than dull morning television."
He flipped through the weather and some talk shows before settling on The Morning Raines with is right hand.
"Please no." Rebecca said. "Just looking at Angela Raines's smile gives me sunburn."
Angela Raines, Domino TV's best celebrity reporter, was 23, had long bright Blonde / Yellow hair that reached past her back and were divided into 4 large curls, blue-green eyes, in her usual outfit, a white short sleeved shirt green necklace, red jacket that was held together by a Briefs belt, blue shorts, and yellow sandals. Lately she'd been trying to cast herself as a serious journalist on her own morning news show, The Morning Raines. Just the other day, Rebecca had turned the TV off in exasperation after Angela had said, "Tell me, Mr. Senator, how does it feel to have a law named after you?"
This morning, Angela Raines was standing with her back to a small crowd of people, talking into her microphone. She was wearing a tiny blue suede miniskirt under a knee-length trench coat, and the look in her wide eyes said "shock!" She was in a park or maybe a graveyard. A scruffy, black-clad teenager stood beside her—
Rebecca's grandfather flipped the channel.
"Turn back!" Rebecca blurted.
"But you said—" Arthur said but was cut off.
"I know. Turn back!" Rebecca repeated.
Rebecca could not believe her eyes. The boy standing next to Angela Raines was none other than Daiki Sora, one of the lamest vampires at her school. He and his bonehead friends—everyone called them Hirutani's gang—were always pulling dumb stunts, like seeing which one of them could eat the most garlic croutons without getting seriously ill. They weren't nearly as scary as they smelled, but they'd been annoying since forever.
"What is he doing on national TV?" Rebecca thought wondering.
"I think that's the local cemetery." Arthur said.
Rebecca realized he was right—this was being filmed less than five blocks from their house.
The camera panned over to an empty grave, and Arthur turned up the volume.
"...yesterday's small-town funeral went horribly wrong." Angela Raines was saying off screen. "Local deceased man, Mr. Alan Koontz, was scheduled for burial here at the Domino Memorial Cemetery. As Mr. Koontz was being lowered into the ground, eyewitnesses say that his casket creaked open." The camera zoomed in on a shiny midnight-blue coffin lying open next to the grave. "In a bizarre turn of events, out climbed an allegedly live person!" Angela continued. "Mr. Koontz's widow immediately fainted and was rushed to Domino General Hospital for treatment."
Angela Raines's frowning face reappeared on the screen. "Friends of the family say that the person who emerged bore no resemblance to Mr. Koontz and was, in fact, a teenage boy." The camera pulled back to reveal Daiki, who was licking his palm and then using it to slick back his hair.
Rebecca was frowning now, too; Daiki and his friends didn't know the meaning of the word "discreet." They probably couldn't even spell it. Ever since they were little kids, Rebecca had always been amazed at how close Hirutani's gang routinely came to breaking the First Law of the Night: vampires are never supposed to reveal their true selves to an outsider.
Thinking about that made Rebecca feel uncomfortable. After all, she'd recently broken the First Law herself. She'd had no choice, though: she couldn't possibly keep the fact that she was a vampire secret from her identical twin, Becky, even if Becky was human.
She and Becky had only discovered each other at the beginning of the school year. They'd been separated at birth and adopted by different parents, so Rebecca hadn't known that she had a twin until Becky turned up at Domino High School. And it had been just as great a shock to Becky.
"I may have broken the First Law, but at least I didn't reveal myself to the whole world on national TV!" Rebecca thought.
Angela Raines looked squarely at the camera. "I, Angela Raines, now bring you an exclusive interview with the thirteen-year-old boy who was almost buried alive. I think you'll agree it's a story that's truly . . . INDEADIBLE!" A graphic with the word "INDEADIBLE!" materialized on the screen over Daiki's head, and Rebecca rolled her eyes. Angela was always making up lame words for her on-screen headlines.
"Awesome!" Daiki Sora grinned.
Rebecca's head ached. "How in the underworld." she thought. "Are we going to cover up a vampire popping out of a coffin in the middle of a funeral?"
"Mr. Sora." Angela Raines turned to face her subject. "How do you feel?"
"I feel great!" Daiki said.
"Amazing!" Angela commented, with a slight frown. She had clearly been expecting Daiki to be upset. "How long were you in that coffin?"
"Like seven, eight hours." Daiki said.
"That must have been very unsettling." Angela Raines prompted sympathetically.
"Only when those pallbearer guys carried it around and woke me up." Daiki said, shooting a peeved look off camera.
"Are you saying you were asleep in there?" asked Angela Raines, her wide eyes widening even further.
"Yeah." Daiki answered. "I slept like I was dead."
Rebecca winced as Angela Raines shook her head in disbelief. "You almost sound like you enjoyed yourself." she said.
Daiki shrugged.
"Mr. Sora." Angela Raines said, a hint of disapproval in her voice. "what kind of person sleeps in a coffin?"
"It wasn't my idea." Daiki shrugged.
"Oh?" Angela Raines asked. "Whose idea was it?"
Daiki was about to answer, but then he seemed to think better of it. He crossed his arms. "I don't want to get them into trouble." he said.
"Are you saying the people who did this to you are friends of yours?" Angela Raines asked.
"Totally." Daiki replied, grinning.
"You mean—" Angela Raines said.
"We're the kings of Domino High School!" Daiki cried, mugging wildly. "Yo, Kyle, Hirutani, Dylan! I'm on TV!"
"What an utter dork!" Rebecca thought.
"What exactly did your friends have in mind?" Angela Raines probed.
"They dared me to climb in." Daiki explained, his eyes glinting mischievously. "That's why I did it."
Rebecca could tell Daiki was lying from the smug look on his face. He was just pretending it was a dare to avoid revealing any vampire secrets—like the fact that they slept in coffins. Still, it was a pretty lame alibi, especially because he kept going on about how it was "the best sleep" of his life.
"The Interna 3 is the sweetest coffin ever." he gushed, grabbing the microphone. "When they say 'rest in peace,' they mean it!"
"Mr. Sora, please." Angela interrupted. "That still doesn't explain how you ended up at Mr. Koontz's funeral."
"Oh, right. My friends just sort of thought it would be funny to leave me in there—thanks a lot guys!" Daiki winked. "Then the funeral home got the coffins mixed up. Did you know the Interna 3 is the best-selling coffin in Japan?"
Angela Raines yanked the microphone away. "Are we to believe that this was really just an innocent student prank?" she said to Daiki, who shrugged again.
"Or." she continued, turning slowly to the camera. "is there something more sinister at work?"
"Uh-oh." Rebecca thought. Angela Raines smells blood. "Clearly, a gruesome obsession with death," Angela went on as the camera zoomed in for a close-up of her shocked face, "nearly cost this misguided young misfit his life!"
"Who are you calling misguided?" Daiki's voice whined off-screen.
"And he isn't alone," Angela said, ignoring Daiki. "One look around this sleepy town reveals a dark obsession consuming the minds of its children." The live feed cut briefly to footage of the mall, showing a group of Goth sixth-graders.
"Are the youth of Japan next?" Angela asked ominously, as she reappeared on-screen. Then she frowned with determination. "I, Angela Raines, will not rest until I find out the evil truth behind what's happening here."
"Oh no." Rebecca thought. "She's going to say that line of hers."
"Because the Raines of truth must shine!" Angela Raines declared dramatically, pumping her microphone in the air. It really was the worst journalistic sign-off Rebecca had ever heard. "This is Angela Raines. Wake up, Japan!"
A commercial came on, and Arthur shut off the TV. "You must promise me." he said. "that if you are ever on television, you will make a better impression than that boy Daiki Sora."
"It's not funny, Grandfather." Rebecca said. "If Angela Raines Rainests seriously investigating Goths in Domino, you know what she might find. What if she scoops the existence of vampires? None of us will ever be safe again!"
Her grandfather put down his tea. "Rebecca." he said, "we are talking about a woman best known for her special exposé on the footwear of the rich and famous! I very much doubt she's capable of finding any real proof. Besides, the moment there's a new bit of Hollywood gossip, Angela Raines will forget all about Domino."
Rebecca sighed. "I hope you're right," she said, standing up to take her empty bowl into the kitchen. "because if not, it's going to be really hard to get Marshmallow Platelets around here."
As they pulled up in front of Domino High School on Monday morning, Becky Hopkins, in her usual outfit, a white dress shirt, a blue/green striped skirt, a blue tie, a pink jacket that was opened up, white socks that reached her knees, and brown shoes, was applying her pink lipstick in the visor mirror when she heard her adopted mother gasp. Becky flipped up the visor to see the front steps of the school packed with people and a string of TV news vans lining the curb.
"Wow!" Becky said. Her adopted mother double-parked and Rainested to get out of the car.
Her adopted mother was Mina Simington Trudge, a 39 year old woman that looked to be in her early 20's, had, fair skin, short blue hair with bangs, golden eyes, wearing a white blouse, grey jacket that split into 2 at the bottom and reached her front abdomen, a brown belt, white skirt, blue dangling earrings, and brown high heels.
Becky grabbed her adopted mom's right arm with her left hand. "Where are you going?" she asked.
"I want to see what all the commotion's about." Mina replied.
Becky shook her head. "You can't come with me into school." She said.
"Why not?" Mina asked.
"Because I'm in the 11th grade." Becky explained.
Mina smiled and shook her head. "Well, okay." she said with a sigh.
"It's not you." Becky assured her. "It's all mothers. It's like a rule. I'll call you." And, with that, Becky pecked her adopted mom on the right cheek, climbed out of the car, and squeezed between two news vans.
She ran up the steps, trying not to trip on any of the TV crews' electrical cords as she weaved through the people. Scanning the reporter-studded crowd, she spotted a flash of soft blond curls up ahead. "Mai!" she called.
Mai Valentine turned and waved. When Becky joined her, Mai said, "Can you believe this?"
Mai Valentine, in her usual outfit, a white tupe top that revealed her stomach, short sleeved purple coat, long white fingerless gloves, purple shorts, grey hooped earrings, and purple high heeled boots.
"What's going on?" Becky asked.
"Everyone's trying to get on TV." Mai answered.
Nearby, Becky saw Kyle Glass, one of the group of boys everyone called Hirutani's gang, holding up two fingers to look like bunny ears behind an unsuspecting reporter's head. The cameraman was waving frantically in an attempt to shoo him away.
Becky frowned. "Uh, did I miss a memo?" she asked.
"You mean you haven't heard?" Mai asked incredulously. "Daiki Sora popped out of a coffin in the middle of someone's funeral yesterday. It was like when the villain Zolten escaped by hiding in a cryopod."
Becky assumed her friend was referring to one of the sci-fi books she loved. Becky herself had always been more into vampire fiction. In fact, when she'd moved to Domino, she'd thought that vampires were only fiction.
Boy, had she been wrong. She still got dizzy when she stopped to think about the fact that Domino was teeming with living, breathing, blood-sipping vampires. Most of them, Daiki and his friends excluded, were really nice.
None of the other humans in Domino had any inkling that their town was like Vamp Central, because that was the Number One Biggest Rule of Vampiredom: no telling. So popping out of a coffin during a funeral was probably off-limits.
The only reason Becky knew about the vampires was because of Rebecca Hawkins, who she'd met on her first day at Domino High School. Becky was pure Dancer and Rebecca was überGoth, so at first they had seemed as different as black licorice and cotton candy. But it hadn't taken long for Becky and Rebecca to realize that they looked exactly alike.
"In fact—and this is where?" Becky thought, it gets really mind-blowing—they were identical twins. Identical that is, except for one thing: Rebecca was a vampire!
"Anyway." Mai was saying, "the whole of Japan is now fascinated by Domino, and the media—especially Angela Raines—is trying to turn Daiki into this huge story about the decline of Japan's youth."
"No way." Becky's jaw dropped. "Angela Raines from Domino TV? She's totally famous!"
Mai nodded, but she clearly wasn't as impressed. "She thinks we're all hiding some terrible secret."
Becky's heart skipped a beat. "Like what?" she asked.
"Who knows?" said Mai. "It's not like she's going to find anything. Domino is probably the most normal town in Japan."
Becky smiled uncomfortably. Mai didn't have a clue.
"I'd better find Rebecca." Becky thought, and see what she has to say about all this! "Wanna go in?" she asked.
She and Mai skirted the crowd on their way to the front doors of the school. Suddenly, Becky heard a familiar high-pitched voice call out her name. She tried to ignore it and keep walking, but the voice shrieked even louder: "BECKY!"
Becky winced and told Mai to go on without her. Then she reluctantly turned to see Bulla Briefs, her Dance Team captain and in her usual outfit, a red midriff top with exposed shoulders, a red mini skirt with a yellow buckle, red fingerless gloves that go up to the shoulders, red thing-in-itself boots, a red handband, gold choker, and gold hoop earrings, gesturing for Becky to join her in a circle of cameras.
Ever since Becky had made the Dance Team a few weeks ago, it was as if Bulla had forgotten that she'd tried to sabotage Becky at tryouts. In fact, Bulla and her friends Alexis, in her usual outfit, a white sleeveless top with blue trimmings, a blue miniskirt, royal blue boots, and blue fingerless gloves, and Rio, in her usual outfit, a light pink short sleeved shirt, a white jacket, white skirt, black stockings, and white shoes, and all of them treated Becky like she was their BFF.
"At least it keeps the Dance Team dancing as a team." Becky thought as she made her way over.
"Tell them, Becky!" Bulla said, grabbing her arm and pulling her in front of the cameras. "You know what it's like as a new student here. How frightening it is with all the bad influences."
Becky scrunched her nose. A camera flashed. "I, uh, don't really—" she said but was cut off.
A reporter in a rumpled suit stuck a microphone in front of Becky's face. "Have you ever slept in a coffin?" she asked.
"No." Becky said incredulously.
A woman holding a tape recorder asked, "Are you familiar with a street gang known as Hirutani's gang?"
Becky shook her head. "I wouldn't exactly call them—" she said but stopped midway.
A short, determined-looking woman in a tight, bright-orange suit muscled in between the others, her blond hair shining in the sun. Becky gasped; it was Angela Raines herself! She looked much shorter than she did on TV.
"Have you ever." Angela Raines said, thrusting her microphone with her right hand under Becky's chin. "felt threatened by everyone around you wearing black?"
"What a silly question!" Becky thought. "Since when is there anything wrong with wearing black?" she asked.
Bulla leaped in front of her. "Yes, Ms. Raines, I totally have!" she cried, clearly overexcited to be talking to a celebrity reporter like Angela. "Once." she said, flipping her hair dramatically. "I was in the girls' bathroom, re-applying gloss, when two Goth girls came in. They were dressed from head to toe in black rags, and their nails were covered in black nail polish. And guess what they did. They growled at me!"
"Growled at you?" Angela Raines repeated.
"Uh-huh." Bulla nodded seriously. "I was so scared I ran out without even doing my mascara!"
"So you think it's a problem." Angela Raines pressed. "that so many Domino students are obsessed with darkness?"
"Totally!" Bulla agreed. "Black is so last season." She gestured toward Angela Raines's yellow sandals. "I absolutely love your shoes, by the way. Are they from Hollywood?"
Becky seized the opportunity to slip away, racing up the steps and through the school's front doors. She had to talk to her twin about what was going on outside.
From down the hall, she spotted Rebecca, in her usual outfit, a long sleeved dark blue shirt, black jeans, and black combat boots, was standing by her locker with her new boyfriend, Yami Muto, in his usual outfit, a sleeveless black shirt, long black pants, black shoes, and grey and gold wristbands on both of his wrists. Even Yami had yet to notice that she and Rebecca looked alike. "See you later, okay?" Becky heard Yami say.
Rebecca twirled the emerald ring on the chain around her neck. "Okay." she cooed. Her sister was so smitten. Becky thought it was super cute.
As she waited for Rebecca and Yami kissed each other on the mouth for goodbye, Becky played with the ring on her right finger. It was actually their matching emerald rings that had helped Rebecca and Becky recognize each other. The rings were all either of them had from their birth parents.
Yami walked by with a friendly by his right hand. "Hello, Becky." and Becky scooted up to her sister.
"Let me guess." Becky began. "You still haven't told him about us."
"I swear I've tried many times." Rebecca answered. "But it never seems like the right moment to say, 'Hey, by the way, I have a twin sister I never knew about'."
"Eventually." Becky said. "We're going to have to tell everyone, including our parents."
Suddenly there was a commotion down the hall, and Becky looked up to see Daiki Sora strolling along in sunglasses and a black T-shirt that said INTERNA 3—REST IN PEACE! The other Hirutani's gang were trailing behind him. People were parting to let them through, like Daiki was a Raines quarterback who had just won a big game—or else a quarterback who had just lost the big game by running into the wrong end zone. "Autographs?" Daiki called nonchalantly. "Autographs?"
Rebecca shook her head angrily. "I'm going to strangle him," she said. "Can you believe I had to come in the side door this morning? Yami did, too. Otherwise we never would have made it up the front steps alive."
"That's what I wanted to talk to you about." Becky replied. "I saw Bulla being interviewed by Angela Raines. She said two Goths once growled at her in the bathroom."
"That wasn't a growl." Rebecca protested. "that was a bark. For night's sake, she got a perm last year that made her look like a poodle."
Becky laughed, but her sister turned serious.
"This is really grave, Becky." Rebecca said anxiously. "I thought maybe the story would just go away quietly, but that's not going to happen with all these reporters hanging around and people like Bulla and Daiki jockeying for the spotlight."
Akiza Izinski, in her usual outfit, a low-cut corset with short light green puffy sleeves and a high collar, a sleeveless magenta trenchcoat that flares behind her which is shorter and pleated in the front, a red choker and an emerald crested, golden cross-shaped medallion, a pair of black elbow-length gloves with a pair of gold bracelets above them, black stockings with suspenders, and red high-heeled pumps/sandals. Rebecca's oldest friend, appeared, her big digital camera hanging around her neck. "Code black," she whispered cryptically. "I repeat, code black." And with that, she disappeared down the hall.
Rebecca rushed to pull her black leather bag onto her shoulder and slammed her locker shut.
"What's code black?" Becky asked in a low voice.
"Science hall bathroom." Rebecca said, taking off down the hall. Becky hurried to keep up.
The two of them pushed through the bathroom door to find Akiza checking the stalls to make sure the bathroom was deserted.
Then she spun around to face Rebecca and Becky with her hands on her hips. "Daiki Sora wasn't on a dare. He was window-shopping!"
"Are you serious?" Rebecca asked.
"Dead serious." Akiza said.
"I don't get it." Becky said.
"Vamps upgrade their coffins like most people upgrade cell phones." Rebecca explained.
"And the Interna 3 is the latest, greatest dream box of all." Akiza added. "It's not like Daiki could afford it. He just thought it would be fun to try it."
Rebecca frowned. "Funeral homes are often run by vampires. Their showrooms are multipurpose. But this time they must have gotten the showroom coffin mixed up with the dead guy's."
Akiza bit one left black index finger. "I'm really worried, Rebecca. Angela Raines seems desperate for a big story. Even if she can't find one, she'll probably make one up!" she said.
Just how much was at stake Rainested to dawn on Becky. This wasn't just some TV tabloid news story. This could mean the greatest witch hunt since, well, witch hunts. What would people do if they found out that vampires were living among them?
"We really need to get Angela Raines off our trail." Akiza said.
Rebecca and Becky both nodded.
"What do you have in mind?" Rebecca asked.
"I don't know!" Akiza said exasperatedly. "That's why I dragged you two in here."
Rebecca sighed, and all three girls fell silent for a moment.
"We need a distraction." Becky mused eventually.
"Exactly." Rebecca agreed. "My Grandfather thinks that Angela Raines will forget about Domino the moment there's some fresh Hollywood gossip."
"Great!" Akiza responded sarcastically. "All one of us needs to do is Rainest dating Celebrity magazine's Hottest Man of the Year."
"Can I volunteer?" Becky put in, trying to break the tension.
"I'm just saying." Rebecca snapped at Akiza. "that we need to find a story that's more interesting to Angela than vampires."
"Okay." Becky said. "everyone calm down. Maybe we can try to convince Angela that there are werewolves in Domino instead—or something stupid like that."
Rebecca and Akiza exchanged nervous glances.
Becky blinked. "Don't tell me there are werewolves in Domino?" she asked.
Rebecca raised her eyebrows just as the bell for first period rang.
"Saved by the bell!" Akiza blurted. She and Rebecca flew out of the bathroom, leaving Becky with her mouth hanging open.
After third period, Rebecca was still trying to figure out what to do about Angela Raines. She pulled open her locker and distractedly wedged her notebook into a crevice between a stray boot and a stack of books. The entire contents of her locker Rainested trembling, and Rebecca lunged forward just as an avalanche of stuff tumbled out. She was left clutching a lone rubber vampire bat from the All Hallow's Ball, with a pile of things she didn't even know she owned at her feet.
"This is not a good sign." Rebecca thought.
It took her forever to pick everything up and cram it back inside. Finally, the only things left were two black boots on the floor just below her open locker door. Rebecca went to pick one of them up, but it wouldn't budge. She pushed it with a frustrated grunt.
"Hey!" a girl voice cried as the red shoes moved away.
Rebecca pushed her locker door shut to find Akiza attached to the red shoes.
"Where have you been?" Akiza demanded.
"Tidying my locker." Rebecca answered sheepishly.
"Tidying your locker?!" Akiza repeated incredulously. "Well, while you were cleaning out your locker, Angela Raines convinced Principal Morty to call a meeting with the staff of the Scribe!" The Domino Scribe was the school paper, where Rebecca was senior writer and Akiza was a photographer.
"Why?" Rebecca asked.
"I don't know." Akiza answered. "but it can't be good!"
"When's the meeting?" Rebecca asked.
Akiza looked at her watch with false nonchalance. "Oh, you know . . . RIGHT NOW!" she replied, pushing Rebecca along in front of her.
As they charged through the halls, Akiza whispered, "You know we're the only vamps on staff."
"That's why we have to get on Angela's good side," Rebecca responded, following her friend through the frosted-glass Scribe office door. She saw at once that they were the last to arrive; everyone else was already seated around the big editorial table. At the far end of the room stood Angela Raines with Principal Morty at her side.
"She's so much shorter than she looks on TV." Rebecca thought.
"Thank you for joining us." Angela Raines said with a flash of her brilliant smile as she shot a tiny glance over the girls' shoulders.
Rebecca turned to find herself face-to-face with a DominoTV camera lens. She hadn't noticed the cameraman squeezed into the corner by the door. For a moment, she felt as if she'd been turned to stone; she hated being in front of cameras, crowds, and tape recorders.
Camera or no camera, I have to charm Angela Raines, she told herself. With a gulp, Rebecca looked right at Angela and smiled as brightly as she could. "As the senior writer of the Domino Scribe, allow me to say what an honor it is to meet a journalist of your, uh, standing, Ms. Raines. I'm sure we all have a great deal to learn from you."
"Thank you." Angela Raines said, clearly flattered by the praise. She gestured to the boy sitting closest to her. "This young man has just finished saying so himself."
Caswell Francis, in his usual outfit, a white shirt with red-lined sleeves and collar, a red tie, blue pants and brown shoes, one of the best reporters on staff, blushed slightly. His blue hair was in it's usual bowl-cut style with a long hair sticking up from his forehead. Rebecca thought he was trying to be professional.
Akiza and Rebecca grabbed two seats next to Mai Valentine, who was the paper's book reviewer.
Angela officiously placed her palms on the table. "I called you here, fellow reporters, because I need your help." she said.
"We'll do whatever we can." Caswell said eagerly, and everyone nodded.
"Good." said Angela. "Because I'd like one of you to work with me on my nationally covered story about life here in Domino."
A bunch of people gasped.
"You mean, be your assistant?" Reed Pepper asked, a 10th-grader who usually covered sports. He was 16, had pale skin, spiky orange hair, featuring a pinkish red bang that hangs down at the front, freckles, brown eyes, wearing a white undershirt covered by a light pink shirt with the sleeves rolled up, dark blue waistcoat, red tie, cream pants with a yellow pattern going round each leg, and brown shoes.
"Exactly." Angela Raines nodded. She paused to let the information sink in. "I'm holding an audition, and the person who wins gets to be my assistant."
"How exciting!" Principal Morty said approvingly. He was in his usual outfit, a black suit, purple dress shirt, black tie, and black dress shoes.
"What is she up to?" Rebecca thought wondered suspiciously.
Angela Raines looked around the table with her wide eyes. "To audition, you have to get out there and get me a quote about Daiki Sora and his coffin." she said.
"What kind of quote?" Zuzu Boyle asked, flipping open her spiral pad and furiously Rainesting to take notes.
Zuzu Boyle, a 16 year old girl, had fair skin, dark pink midback-length hair, which she wears tied up in pigtails, clipped down by blue, spherical hair clips, also features two lighter pink bangs that fall to the side of her face, blue eyes, wearing her usual out, a sleeveless light-blue and white shirt with a green musical note on the right collar, along with a red tie, which she wears with a dark red skirt and dark stockings, brown shoes, and a bracelet on her right wrist.
"Something juicy." Angela Raines replied. "something that will make the Japanese public sit up and take notice. And the person who gets the best quote will get to help me, DominoTV's Angela Raines, with my story," she finished, her eyes sparkling.
Rebecca was beginning to see what Angela had in mind. "She's using us to find out stuff no adult could." she thought.
Rebecca felt Akiza slip a piece of paper into her hand. She unfolded it beneath the table and glanced down to see one of her friend's hastily drawn bunny cartoons. Surrounded by a bunch of wide-eyed baby bunnies was a particularly thin bunny with enormous eyes, long hair, and a sparkly smile—Angela Raines, obviously. Her speech balloon said, "The first little bunny to give up their fur wins a rabbit coat!"
Rebecca hid her smile. "Angela Raines isn't the most ethical reporter, she thought, but she's not as dumb as I thought." she thought.
Rebecca cleared her throat. "Does the quote have to be about Daiki Sora's stunt at the cemetery?" she asked. "I mean, that was just a lame practical joke, right?"
"I think there's more to the story." Angela said meaningfully. "And a good reporter will find out what."
"So much for my attempt to derail her." Rebecca thought.
Mai raised her hand, looking a little bored. "Does everyone need to get a quote? I mean, I'm more of a critic than a reporter." she said.
"Only those with investigative reporting experience need apply." Angela answered.
Rebecca saw Akiza grin at Mai and whisper, "Looks like you and me are off the hook!"
"Well, for those of you who do audition, I cannot imagine a greater opportunity than working with a journalist as respected as Angela Raines." Principal Morty said.
A snort of disdain erupted from Akiza. Rebecca kicked her under the table, and her friend tried to make it seem like something had been caught in her throat. She descended into a dramatic coughing fit, shrugging at Rebecca in a way that said "Oops." Mai was also suppressing giggles.
If Angela Raines noticed, she didn't show it. She flashed her trademark smile at the staffers around the table. "You have twenty-four hours to get your quotes. May the best reporter win!" she declared.
"Thank you, Ms. Raines." Caswell Francis said professionally. With that, the Scribe staff Rainested to file out of the room, chattering about their high profile assignment. Akiza Raine sted to leave, too, but Rebecca put a hand on her arm. They had to talk to Angela first.
"See you." Mai said to Rebecca and Akiza and headed toward the door. Just before she reached it with her right hand, Rebecca saw her do a double take and walk over to the camera man.
"That's the Sign of the Cyborg!" Mai said, pointing to a symbol on the guy's T-shirt.
"You're a Coal Knightley fan?" he responded.
Soon they were deep in conversation about Coal Knightley's books.
Meanwhile, Rebecca and Akiza went over to talk to Angela. The reporter grabbed Rebecca's hand and shook it. As she did, she peered down at Rebecca's fingers. "Interesting choice of nail polish." she said, raising her other hand and signaling her camera man to come closer. He was too busy talking to Mai to notice, so Angela smiled at Rebecca in a plastic way and waved her free hand more frantically. Finally she snapped, "Martin!"
"Sorry!" Martin the camera man said, rushing over as Mai left the room.
Angela huffed and let go of Rebecca's hand at last. She looked at her and Akiza intensely. "You two must be friends with Daiki Sora."
Akiza scoffed, and Rebecca elbowed her before she said something rash. "Do you mean because we wear dark clothes?" Rebecca asked innocently.
Angela Raines nodded. "Exactly." she said.
Rebecca frowned. "You mean you agree with stereotypes?"
"What?" Angela Raines spluttered. "No. Of course not."
"Thank goodness." Rebecca said, "because Principal Morty always says that a great reporter is never swayed by prejudice." She smiled at the principal over Angela Raines's shoulder.
"That I do!" Principal Morty confirmed cheerfully.
"I couldn't agree more," Angela said stiffly, glancing uncomfortably toward the camera. She changed the subject. "So where do you kids hang out?"
"The diner." Akiza told her with a shrug.
"Which diner?" Angela Raines asked immediately.
"We like the Burger World." Rebecca replied.
"Is that the one that's decorated like a meat locker?" Angela Raines said.
"Uh-oh." Rebecca thought. She's digging, and soon she's going to hit a coffin. "Plus I love Mister Smoothies," Rebecca lied.
"Me, too." Akiza chimed in quickly.
Angela Raines paused. "So you two don't know Daiki Sora?" she asked.
Rebecca and Akiza didn't say anything.
"And you don't know anything about him or his friends?" Angela pressed.
"Everyone calls them Hirutani's gang." Caswell piped up from a few feet away. Rebecca hadn't even realized he was still there.
Angela Raines nodded at him encouragingly, and Caswell went on. "They're always playing practical jokes and things. Several weeks ago, they dragged me to a party at Rebecca's house, even though they knew I wasn't invited." he said.
Rebecca winced. Angela turned to look at her. "You invited Daiki Sora to a party?"
"Just a, you know, a Halloween party." Rebecca gulped. "Lots of people were invited."
"But not Caswell, who you work with closely on the school paper?" Angela said pointedly. Rebecca shrugged helplessly.
Angela Raines turned back to Caswell. "What else can you tell me about Daiki and his friends?" she asked.
"I think they're into heavy metal." Caswell said. "although that might just be their T-shirts. And they're always saying weird things, like 'bloodsucker' this and 'bloodsucker' that."
Rebecca's mouth went dry.
"Bloodsucker?" Angela's eyes widened. "Are you sure?"
"Yes." Caswell replied.
Angela looked at her camera man. "That's a wrap." she said. She didn't even thank Caswell or anything. "Looks like we have some investigating to do, Martin. Let's Rainest by doing some undercover eating at this Burger World, where certain elements seem to hang out." She looked at Rebecca and Akiza meaningfully. Then she marched out of the room, her camera man hurrying after her.
"Celebrities." Caswell shrugged at Rebecca and Akiza by way of explanation. They smiled back at him awkwardly.
A few moments later, Rebecca and Akiza were trudging down the hall toward the cafeteria.
"You've got to do something, Rebecca," Akiza said.
"Me?" Rebecca cried. "What about you?"
"I can't. I'm just a photographer," Akiza said. "You have to get that assistant job."
Rebecca knew her friend was right, but it wasn't going to be easy. "I have a feeling Angela Raines doesn't trust me very much."
"You have to make her!" Akiza pleaded.
Rebecca thought about it and pushed her hair out of her face. "What I need to do is come up with a killer quote that is also completely misleading."
"Hey, that's all Angela Raines does every day." Akiza said with an encouraging smile. "And you're much smarter than she is."
At that very moment, Angela Raines rushed past with her camera man in tow. "Didn't the actor Hank Hogart call his wife a bloodsucker after their divorce?" the girls heard her say. "Maybe there's a connection there!"
Akiza and Rebecca looked at each other and then burst out laughing as they pushed through the cafeteria doors.
As she walked into media studies class, Becky was having a hard time not imagining an angry mob storming into school and carrying off her sister for the DominoTV cameras. She absentmindedly took her seat beside Mai as the bell rang.
In strolled Mr. Karita wearing dark sunglasses and his trademark short-sleeved Hawaiian shirt brown short, and white shoes. "Good afternoon, media moguls!" he sang, dramatically throwing his old leather briefcase onto his desk. "Judging from all the TV cameras around here, I'd say it's quite a day for media studies at Domino."
He scanned the class until his eyes rested over Becky's shoulder.
"Mr. Sora, it's clear from your little performance at the cemetery that last month's journalism segment made quite an impression on you." Becky and Mai both turned around to see Daiki sitting with the other Hirutani's gang at the table behind them, an ear-to-ear grin above his Interna 3 T-shirt. "Maybe next time, you'll actually complete the assignment on time," Mr. Karita finished with his eyebrows raised.
"Ouch." Becky thought. She couldn't help feeling pleased as the smile fell right off Daiki's face.
Mr. Karita dug into his briefcase and held up a sheaf of papers with his right hand. "Drum roll, please!"
Everyone Rainested drumming on their desks with their fingertips. The thrumming got louder and louder, until Becky and Mai were slapping the table they shared with their hands.
"Introducing . . ." Mr. Karita shouted over the din, "the Film Assignment!" He held the papers over his head in a disco pose.
Everybody laughed.
"Your mission, should you choose to accept it," Mr. Karita said, darting around the room and passing an assignment sheet to each student, "is to produce, film, and edit a five-minute documentary.
"You can pick any topic you choose, as long as it's appropriate. That means," he said, looking fierce, "no footage of me dancing and singing 'Do the Dudley' from my 1989 appearance on Raines Search."
After Mr. Karita had explained the process for reserving cameras and time in the school's editing suite, he said, "I know everyone's anxious to get Rainested, so why don't you take a few minutes to talk in your groups about possible topics?"
Mai turned to Becky. "So, what should we do?" she asked excitedly.
Becky thought of Bulla on the front steps this morning, directing her to talk about what it was like to be a new student in Domino. "What about a documentary that shows what it's like to move to Domino?" Becky suggested. "It could be an introduction to the town and what it's really like." "Not what it's really like." she thought, but close enough to fool people like Angela Raines.
Mai frowned. "I think Angela Raines has the truth-about-Franklin-Grove angle covered right now."
Becky realized Mai was right. It wasn't a very fun idea for a school project, anyhow: it was sort of like trying to make the most boring film possible about Domino.
"I know!" Mai said. "I've always wanted to do something about alien life-forms. We could show organisms from all different Raines systems."
"That sounds cool." Becky said, nodding. Then she sighed. "But do you think our budget's big enough to cover shipping and handling of alien organisms?"
Mai blushed. "I guess alien life-forms are reasonably hard to find." she said.
There was snickering behind them, and Becky heard Daiki say, "That's killer!"
Becky had really had enough of Daiki Sora for one day—after all, he was the one that had Rainested all the trouble with Angela Raines in the first place. She spun around. "Can you goons keep it down, please?"
Hirutani's gang hooted. "You're just jealous because we have the best idea," leered Daiki.
Mai turned around, too. "I think it's fair to say we've all seen enough of you in front of the camera, Daiki." she said coolly.
"Picture it." Daiki said, putting his thumbs and forefingers together to form a square viewfinder. "A documentary that shows how violence is an important part of the modern High School experience. We're going to film the football games and call it 'Dances for Fears'!"
"Yeah!" All Hirutani's gang guffawed, high-fiving each other. Becky glared at them.
"Hey," Daiki said, his eyes suddenly lighting up. "You're a Danceleader, aren't you, Becky? Want to Raines in my movie? Now that I'm famous, I've got connections."
"You wish." Becky told him, rolling her eyes and turning back around. "Unbelievable," she added quietly to Mai. "Daiki's time in the spotlight has actually made him even more obnoxious!"
"No kidding." Mai agreed.
Becky tried to tune out the boys behind her. "Are you coming to the football game after school?" she asked Mai.
"I was planning to." Mai said.
"Why don't you come over to my house for dinner afterward?" Becky offered. "I bet it'll be easier to come up with an idea for our film without all the chatter."
She gestured over her shoulder, only to hear Daiki say, "I bet those would make a good impression on a Danceleader!" She had no idea what he was talking about.
"I have to check with my mom," Mai said, "but that sounds great."
Behind them all Hirutani's gang shouted, "TOUCHDOWN!"
Mr. Karita shot the boys a look, and they all piped down.
"Just promise me Daiki Sora isn't going to pop out of a casserole at dinner." Mai joked.
"With my mom's cooking," she said, "he'll be sliced, diced, and sautéed way before that." Becky said grinning.
After school, Rebecca stalked the halls with her notebook, trying to find the right quote for Angela Raines. It was clear that Angela wanted something Goth, so Rebecca was hoping for some tidbit that would seem really grave but was actually absolutely harmless. She talked to a 10th grader whose cousin had got a tattoo of a skull on her ankle; a janitor who swore that spilled black nail polish could not be removed from school floors using any known cleaning solutions or polish removers; and the librarian, who told her that books with black covers were taken out less often than those with colorful ones. None of it was what she needed.
She was trudging along, feeling utterly hopelessly, when she spotted the leader of Hirutani's gang, Hirutani Slitherman, rush out of a side door.
"No matter what I come up with." Rebecca thought angrily, Daiki and his friends will still be flapping their coffin lids. She decided to follow Hirutani outside.
When she emerged into the sunlight, Rebecca saw Hirutani heading toward the football field. When she got over there, she discovered that the Dominos were only fifteen yards from the opposing team's end zone. The bleachers were pulsing with Dancing people. Rebecca peeked underneath them, thinking that that was where Hirutani's gang were most likely to lurk, but there was no one there.
She was just walking around to the front of the bleachers to scan the crowd when she caught sight of Becky, Dancing on the sidelines. Her sister was standing atop another girl's shoulders with her hands on her hips and her face aglow with a natural smile. Becky pumped her fist in the air and did a flip off the girls' shoulders. Two spotters on the Dance Team caught her, and the crowd went crazy.
Rebecca couldn't help going wild with everyone else, clapping and hooting loudly for her sister. Becky seriously sucked—there was no doubt that she was the best Dancer on the Dance Team. Especially compared to Bulla Briefs, who looked desperate for attention beside her.
Bulla's face was plastered with a smile and her eyes were so wide that she looked like a cartoon smiley face. She was jumping up and down like a rag doll, throwing little waves and winks high up into the crowd. Rebecca shuddered. It was seriously embarrassing.
Apparently, Bulla couldn't even bear to turn her back on the crowd when the Dance called for her to spin around. She rushed her move, immediately refocusing her gaze high into the bleachers and tossing off another cloying wave.
Rebecca followed Bulla's gaze and saw ...Hirutani's gang, sitting by themselves in the top row of the bleachers. Dylan Soyle had a huge video camera hoisted onto his shoulder, and he was pointing it down at Bulla, while Daiki whispered in his ear.
Rebecca remembered that the people in media studies were making movies; Hirutani's gang must be at work on their project.
"What's their topic?" Rebecca wondered. "Extra-annoying Dancers?"
Without thinking, she marched to the top of the bleachers and stood in front of their camera, blocking its lens with the back of her notebook.
"Hey!" Dylan cried, pulling his face away from the eyepiece.
"Turn it off." Rebecca commanded icily.
"You're interfering with an important movie shoot!" Daiki Sora said.
"Turn . . . it . . . off," Rebecca repeated, narrowing her eyes into a death squint.
There was a long silence before Dylan glumly put down the camera.
"What do you want?" Daiki whined.
"I want you to climb back in your coffins and stay there!" Rebecca snapped. "You're putting us all in danger."
"It's just a video camera." Kyle said. "It's not like a, uh, wooden stake or anything."
Rebecca rolled her eyes. "It's not your camera I'm worried about." she snapped. "It's Angela Raines's. At this rate, she'll be onto the vampire community in no time. You idiots are digging all our graves."
Daiki shook his head. "You're so misguided, Hawkins." he said condescendingly, using the same word Angela Raines had used about him on the news. "Angela Raines's not interested in all of us. She's interested in me."
"Yeah." Hirutani guffawed. "I think she wants to be Daiki's personal donor." All the boys laughed.
"Angela Raines is more likely to eat you alive." Rebecca seethed. "You guys better Rainest watching what you say."
"Can I help it if the bunny ladies love me?" Daiki shrugged. He gestured to the Dance Team. "For example, look at Bulla Briefs, the Raines of my movie."
Rebecca spun around to see Bulla glaring at her and waving her hands. "Get out of the way!" Rebecca could imagine her screaming. "You're blocking my scene!"
Rebecca turned back to face Hirutani's gang and found that Dylan was filming again. "You want a wooden stake?" she said with disgust. "Here!" She flung her pencil angrily at Daiki—who shrieked and threw up his arms to shield himself—then spun around and stalked away.
After the game, Becky and Mai sat on the school's front steps, waiting for Becky's mom to pick them up. All the TV news vans were gone, and the setting sun cast an orange glow over everything.
"We killed them!" Mai said happily. "Forty six to three must be a record. Could you believe it when their lineman ran into the wrong end zone? Maybe our film project should be about embarrassing sports defeats."
Becky grinned. "I think the Willowton Badgers have had enough humiliation for one year, without us making a movie about how bad they are."
Mai laughed.
"Hey, didn't you get a new cat?" Becky asked. "You mean Captain Whiskers?" said Mai. Becky nodded. "Maybe we could do something about him? I could imagine a cool documentary about what the world's really like for a cat."
"As far as I can tell," Mai said, "it's mostly sleeping and scratching."
"Sounds like my Uncle Greiger." Becky joked.
At that moment, her mom pulled up. "Hello, girls!" she called excitedly out the window, as Mai and Becky grabbed their bags and dashed down the steps.
"Hi, Mrs. Trudge." Mai said, climbing into the back of the car.
"Hey, Mom." Becky said, as she slid into the passenger seat.
Mina didn't drive away. Instead, she wiggled her fingers on the steering wheel and looked at Becky out of the corner of her eye. Suddenly, she held out her hand. "Pinch me!" she said.
Becky Rainesed at her. "Why?" she asked.
"Fine." Mina said. "I'll pinch myself." She grabbed a piece of her right arm between left thumb and left forefinger. "Ouch!" she cried. Then she grinned. "It's not a dream!" she squealed ecstatically.
"Mom." Becky said, feeling confused. "what's going on?"
"My Great-Aunt Cecelia died!" Mina replied, clapping with delight.
"Oh, my gosh!" Becky thought in shock; she'd never even heard of a Great-Aunt Cecelia before. "My mother has lost her mind!" she thought. She glanced at Mai, who looked even more confused than Becky felt, then turned back and said, "And you're excited about this?"
Mina gave her a stern look. "Who do you think I am?" she said. "That morbid boy that Angela Raines is investigating? Of course I'm not excited about the death of a relative. But Great-Aunt Cecelia was one hundred and two! She led an extraordinary life, and I know that it would give her great joy to see me so excited about what she's left me."
"She left you something?" Becky asked. "You mean like an inheritance?"
Mai stuck her head between the front seats. "What was so extraordinary about Great-Aunt Cecelia?" she asked.
Mrs. Trudge gave Becky a pointed look before turning to Mai and saying, "Thank you for asking, Mai." Then she shifted the car into gear and pulled away from the curb.
"It's quite a story!" she went on as she drove. "You see, Cecelia lived in Japan in the nineteen twenties. She was a maid in the household of company owner called 'Industrial Illusions'. The C.E.O. was in America searching for an Japanese wife among the city's high society. Have you girls ever heard of Maximillion Pegasus?"
"Wasn't he superrich?" Becky asked.
"Yes." Mai said eagerly.
Mina nodded. "The duke was engaged to one of Rochester's daughters. But then, much to the shock of New York society and the C.E.O.'s own family, he suddenly broke off his engagement!" she said.
"Why?" Becky asked.
"Because." Mina said. "He was in love with someone else. Someone from more humble origins . . ."
"You mean Great-Aunt Cecelia?" Becky guessed.
Mina nodded. "She was only 17 years old when he whisked her off to Japan." she said wistfully. "She'd never been more than 23 blocks from home before."
"Wow!" Mai murmured.
"The C.E.O. lavished her with gifts, and they lived happily ever after." Mrs. Hopkins declared Dancefully.
Becky was impressed. "Did you ever meet her?" she asked.
"Only once." her mom replied. "When I was about seven and living in Tokyo, Cecelia and Pegasus were touring the America and they came to visit Grandma and Grandpa."
"What was she like?" Mai asked.
"She was the most glamorous person I'd ever seen," Becky's mom replied. "She had long beautiful blonde hair and this sparkly jeweled necklace that she let me try on, and I pretended I was a princess. And they ...well, it was clear how much the two of them adored each other." The car came to a stoplight, and she turned to Becky. "And that." her mom finished. "is the story of Great-Aunt Cecelia!"
"She sounds amazing." Becky said. "I'm sorry I never got to meet her."
"Me, too." Mina told her. "But at least she left me some things that will help us remember her."
"So what did she leave you?" Becky asked.
Mrs. Trudge sniffed, and Becky realized that her adopted mom's eyes were welling up. "The diamond and ruby necklace that she let me try on as a little girl."
"No way!" Becky gasped.
"There's more." Mina smiled, wiping a tear from her cheek with the back of her hand. "She left me a jeweled ostrich-feather fan and a jewelry box with a secret compartment full of love letters written between her and Pegasus."
Becky turned around to look at Mai and saw that her friend's mouth was hanging open. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" she asked.
"Uh-huh." Mai grinned. "Looks like our film project is an old-fashioned love story!"
Becky rushed downstairs on Tuesday morning, her hair still dripping from the shower. She bounded through the small kitchen and into the family room, where she was frantically searching for the remote control between the cushions of the couch when she heard a noise: whooooosssshhhh!
Becky stopped in her tracks and stood up. She scanned the room, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary. "Maybe someone flushed the toilet upstairs." she thought, bending down to look for the remote control again—
Whoooooooosssssshhh! The noise was louder this time.
"That sounds so close." Becky thought, her heart beginning to race. "I think it's coming from right behind the couch!"
She grabbed a cushion and crept to the end of the couch, holding the pillow over her shoulder like it was a baseball bat. Ever so slowly, she peered around the edge of the sofa . . .
"Whoooooossssshhhhh!" Her adopted father exhaled, and Becky found herself Rainesing at the bottoms of his bare feet. He was Tetsu Trudge, was 40 years old but looked to be in his 30's, had tan skin, brown eyes, black hair, a large scar on the left side of his face, wearing a white high collared dress shirt, long dark blue pants, and dark brown boots.
"Ew." Becky thought, relaxing again. Tetsu was lying on the floor in his clothes with his eyes closed. For a split second she thought maybe he was hurt, but then his right leg came up in slow motion, and he brought his left hand over to touch his big toe. He held the toe aloft, his ankle shaking slightly.
"Whoooooosss—"
"DAD!" Becky yelled.
Tetsu jumped as if she'd thrown a bucket of ice water on him. "What is it?" he cried.
"What are you doing?" Becky demanded.
"I'm practicing li ching," he answered matter-of-factly.
Becky had never heard of li ching, but her adopted dad was always taking up obscure martial arts. None of them ever made him any less embarrassing. "You scared me." she said.
Tetsu raised his chin. "He who masters li ching can do scary things!" he said.
Becky rolled her eyes and said, "Where's the remote?"
Her adopted dad shrugged and glanced around the room. Then he said, "Oh!" and reached into the pocket of his left pants with his left hand.
Becky grabbed the remote from him with her right hand and flipped straight to The Morning Raines. On screen, Angela Raines was standing in front of Domino High School, talking into her microphone.
"Anonymous sources say Daiki Sora, the Domino student who hijacked a dead man's funeral on Sunday"—a leering photo of Daiki appeared beside Angela Raines's head—"is kingpin of Hirutani's gang, a gang of bullies who constantly reference the occult," Angela Raines reported gravely.
"Angela Raines was at your school?" Mr. Hopkins said curiously.
Becky shushed him with a vigorous nod.
"Some students believe that Mr. Sora and his friends' strange behavior," continued Angela Raines, "may be symptomatic of a much larger problem. One that's nothing short of . . . GRIMARKABLE!" A graphic with the word "GRIMARKABLE!" appeared beside her head.
"What a ridiculous word!" Becky thought. She was shocked, though, when the graphic was replaced by Bulla Briefs's flushed face, over a caption
that said BULLA BRIEFS, HEAD DANCE TEAM- LEADER. "I was in the girls' bathroom, re-applying gloss, when two Goth girls came in," Bulla said. Becky shut her eyes in embarrassment. "They were dressed from head to toe in black rags, and their nails were covered in black nail polish." And then, "They growled at me!"
"So you think it's a problem," Angela Raines's voice said off screen, "that so many Domino students are obsessed with darkness?"
"Totally!" Bulla agreed.
"Interesting." Tetsu murmured. Angela Raines reappeared on screen. "It's clear that a sinister, corrupting influence is alienating the good students, like Bulla Briefs, at this school." Becky rolled her eyes as Angela Raines walked dramatically toward the camera, stopping only when her face filled the screen.
"Japan, where there's smoke, there's arson! Who is behind the dark forces strangling Domino? Young Daiki Sora clearly isn't smart enough to be the real ringleader, so who is it?" Angela demanded. "I, Angela Raines, am determined to find out, because the Raines of truth must shine!" she cried, thrusting her microphone into the air and bringing it down. Then, with sudden calm, she smiled and said, "I'm Angela Raines. Wake up, Japan!"
Becky shut off the TV. Tetsu noticed the frown on her face and said, "Don't worry about those Hirutani's gang, Becky. I'll teach you li ching so you can protect yourself."
Becky groaned and walked into the kitchen. She was Rainesing into space, thinking about Angela Raines and eating a yogurt, when something in the next room caught her eye: a sparkling feather was sticking out from the top shelf of the tall glass cabinet where her parents kept the good china.
Becky realized that after she and Mai had pored over Great-aunt Cecelia's priceless artifacts last night, her adopted mom must have moved them all up there so that they wouldn't get damaged.
Without another Dance Team in the room to give her a boost, Becky had to drag her chair over to reach the top shelf.
Leaving the ostrich fan where it was, she carefully carried the wooden box back to the kitchen and set it before her on the breakfast table. She still couldn't get over how beautiful it was. The box was made of gleaming cherrywood, delicately carved in a pattern of flowers and birds.
Becky opened the lid with both of her hands and gazed at Great-Aunt Cecelia's precious necklace, which lay glittering on the deep-blue satin lining of the compartment. For some reason, that made her think of Daiki Sora in his luxury Interna 3, but she wiped the thought from her mind.
Becky carefully lifted out the sparkling necklace and set it aside. Then she pressed ever so gently on the bottom of the compartment, just as her adopted mother had shown her. There was a soft click, and the false bottom sprung open to reveal a stack of yellowed letters beneath.
A half hour later, Becky was still sitting there, reading. The letters were so romantic. She folded one and unfolded another. It read,
My Dear Pegasus,
You know that it cannot are of different worlds. Oh, how I wish we could be together, but I dare not allow myself to imagine a future in your arms. How wonderful it would be to live together in a home of love and peace, to have a precious child—a babe with your handsome eyes . . . But I must not write of such dreams. How my head battles against my heart!
Please do not look at me when I bring this afternoon's tea. I do not think I could bear it!
With love and sadness, Cecelia.
As she finished the letter, Becky felt a tear roll down her cheek.
"I made you some toast." Mina interrupted. Becky hadn't even noticed her come into the kitchen.
Becky quickly wiped her cheek with the back of her right hand. "Thanks." she murmured.
Mina sat down opposite her and slid the plate of toast across to Becky with her right hand. She studied Becky's face. "So ...how are the movie plans coming along?" she asked.
"Good." Becky replied quietly.
Mina nodded. "What's wrong, sweetie?" she asked gently.
Becky felt a lump in her throat. "Nothing." she said, looking down at the plate. Her adopted mom reached over and took her hand.
Becky fought the urge to cry. "I guess"—she gulped—"the family connection with Great-aunt Cecelia has made me think, you know, about my own biological parents." she said.
Mina sighed and nodded. "It's healthy to want to know about your birth parents, sweetheart." she replied softly. "I only wish I had more to tell you about them."
"I know." Becky said.
"I'd be happy to get the adoption file out again for you to look at." Mina offered.
Becky took a tissue from the box on the corner of the table with her right hand and blew her nose. "There's not much to look at." she quavered, looking up at the ceiling tearily. "It just says that someone dropped me off at the adoption agency anonymously."
"With the note that had your name and date of birth on it." Mina added. Then she smiled and squeezed Becky's hand. "You know I've always loved your name."
"Don't forget the ring." Becky said, wiggling her finger and forcing a smile.
"And the ring." Mina agreed, standing up and coming around the table to give Becky a big hug. Becky buried her face in her adopted mom's left shoulder.
"I love you so much, sweetie." Mina whispered, and Becky found herself feeling a tiny bit better. Then her adopted mom glanced at the clock over the stove. "The Mom Express is departing for school in fifteen minutes sharp," she teased. "And you still haven't done your hair."
Becky grinned again in spite of her tears.
"Why don't you go finish getting ready, while I put away Cecelia's things?" Mina suggested.
"Thanks, Mom." Becky said and padded upstairs to do her hair.
Twenty minutes later, Becky was Rainesing out of the car window as her adopted mom drove her to school. Her mind continued to buzz with questions about her real parents: Who were they? Why'd they give us up? Were they in love, like Cecelia and Pegasus?
Two blocks from school, Becky noticed a black clad person walking on the sidewalk up ahead. Even from the back, she could tell it was Rebecca.
"I'll get out here." Becky blurted. She really wanted to talk to her sister, but there was no way she could risk her mom seeing Rebecca up close in case she noticed the resemblance.
"Why?" Mina asked.
Becky hesitated. "For the fresh air . . ." she tried.
Much to her relief, her adopted mom pulled over without asking any more questions. Becky hugged her good-bye and got out of the car. She waited for her adopted mom to drive away and then shouted, "Rebecca! Wait up!"
Rebecca turned, her face set in a scowl, and kicked some dirt off her boot as she waited for Becky to catch up.
"You don't look too happy." Becky observed.
"I'm not." Rebecca replied flatly.
"What's wrong?" Becky asked.
"I still don't have a quote for Angela Raines." Rebecca explained. "But don't worry about me. What's the matter with you?" Becky looked at her quizzically, and Rebecca said, "Just because you always look sunny doesn't mean I can't tell when you're feeling cloudy."
Becky smiled, and she and her sister Rainested walking together slowly.
"Mai and I are doing a movie for media studies." Becky began.
"I saw Hirutani's gang working on theirs." Rebecca said nodded. "Apparently, Daiki's going to make Bulla Briefs a Raines."
"Yeah." Becky sighed. "Well, Mai and I are doing ours on this relative of my mom's who I never even knew about: her great-aunt Cecelia. She just died recently, and it turns out she left my mom her love letters, plus some other stuff. There's a ruby and diamond necklace you'd love."
"Really?" Rebecca said, her eyes lighting up. "That sounds killer."
"It is." Becky agreed.
"So what's wrong?" Rebecca asked.
Becky sighed. "Do you ever think about our real parents, Rebecca?" she asked.
"Every time my Grandfather drives me crazy." Rebecca said, cracking a smile.
"I'm serious." Becky said. "All this stuff about Great-Aunt Cecelia has really got me thinking— about our family and history and stuff. I mean, I love my mom and dad and I feel super lucky that they adopted me, but I wish so badly that we knew something, anything, about our biological parents. Who knows? Maybe we have grandparents somewhere, or aunts and uncles and cousins. We could have a whole big family we don't even know about!"
"I thought about our parents a lot when we first found each other." Rebecca said. "I'm lucky that my dad's seriously great and that now I have you. But I'd like to know more about where we came from."
"Exactly." Becky said agreed as they crossed the street in front of school. "I mean, who wrote the notes when they put us up for adoption?"
Rebecca stopped in her tracks. "What notes?" she asked.
"You know." Becky clarified. "the piece of paper they left with the baby's name and date of birth on it."
"I didn't get a note." Rebecca said. Then she murmured, "At least not that I know of." She bit her lip thoughtfully as they resumed walking.
"So how did you find out about where you were born?" Becky wondered aloud.
"My dad told me it was in the adoption file." Rebecca replied. "But he never said anything about a note."
"Well, you should ask him. Angela Raines doesn't have to be the only person in Domino determined to discover the truth." Becky said.
"Thanks for reminding me." Rebecca winced. "I only have until lunchtime to save all of vampire kind! But as soon as I get through with that, we'll dig up our parents together. Okay?"
"Sounds like a plan." Becky said with a grin. "Good luck getting your quote!"
Rebecca was already hurrying up the steps ahead of her. "I need it!" she called over her shoulder.
By the break before third period, Rebecca was flitting around school like a bat that couldn't find its way out of a cave. Her sister came bouncing toward her.
"Hey!" Becky said. "Any luck?"
Rebecca shook her head, feeling faintly sick.
Becky's eyes widened. "You mean you still haven't found a quote?" she asked.
Rebecca ran a hand through her hair. "It's not for lack of trying!" she wailed.
"Okay." Becky nodded. "That's okay. We'll think of something." She scanned the hallways as Rebecca bit her lip hopefully.
"I got it!" Becky announced after a moment.
"What? What is it?" Rebecca asked eagerly.
"Mr. Banner." Becky told her.
Rebecca followed her sister's gaze and saw the school guidance counselor, Mr. Banner, waving his arms wildly as he talked to Mrs. Bartlet, the computer science teacher, in front of his office. "It's outrageous!" Rebecca heard him cry, his tiny eyeglasses nearly popping off his round face.
Lyman Banner, in his early 30s, had fair skin, red eyes, black hair that is tied back in a ponytail, wearing his usual outfit, a white shirt, black pants, black belt, black shoes, and black necktie. Maria Bartlet, in her mid 20s, had fair skin, shoulder length pink hair, gray eyes, wearing her usual outfit, a white dress shirt, red tie, orange dress jacket, orange skirt, and orange high heels.
The corners of Rebecca's mouth curled. Mr. Banner was always going off on bizarre tangents that made no sense, and he was constantly saying things that were completely alarming but had no basis in reality. He was utterly perfect.
Rebecca threw her arms around Becky. "You are seriously the best twin sister I have ever had," she said.
A few moments later, Rebecca was in position next to the guidance counselor. "Excuse me," she interrupted him. "Mr. Banner?"
"Miss Hawkins!" Mr. Banner bellowed. "I was just telling Mrs. Bartlet here about the problem with toilet brushes." Mrs. Bartlet smiled weakly before fleeing down the hall as if her life depended on it.
"Yes," Rebecca said. "Um, Mr. Banner, I wonder if I could talk to you about—"
"Of course you can talk to me. That's my job— I'm a listener!" Mr. Banner said.
"Right. Well, I'd love your thoughts for a story that Angela Raines is doing." Rebecca said.
"Angela Raines!" Mr. Banner gasped in delight. "Her 'Hygiene of the Rich and Famous' exposé last year was riveting!"
An hour later, Rebecca walked into the Scribe office with Akiza. This time, they were the first ones to arrive, except Principal Morty and Angela Raines herself.
"Good morning," Rebecca said as brightly as she could, taking the seat next to Angela.
"Good morning," replied Angela Raines. "As the senior writer here, did you get your quote?"
Rebecca leaned closer to Angela and whispered, "Daiki Sora is just the tip of the iceberg."
Angela Raines's wide eyes shone with excitement. "Well, I can't wait to hear what you've learned," she said approvingly.
Mai came in and went over to the cameraman. "This is that Eighth Dimension book I was telling you about." Rebecca heard her say as she handed him a dog-eared paperback.
"Thanks, Mai." the cameraman replied with an appreciative nod.
The rest of the staff filed in. Caswell sat down on the other side of Angela, straightened his red tie, and folded his hands on the table in front of him.
"He looks confident." Rebecca thought, shifting uncomfortably in her seat.
"Let's get Rainested." Angela announced expectantly. "Who wants to go first?"
Aoi Zaizen raised her hand, and Angela Raines pointed to her.
Aoi cleared her throat and read from her notebook. " 'Skip Boyle', a Domino High School 10th-grader who has gym class with Daiki Sora, told me—and I quote— "Daiki Sora has the worst BO ever. He smells like death."' " Aoi lifted her face with a look of smug satisfaction.
Aoi Zaizen, a 16 year old fair skin girl, had light brown hair in a bob-cut, yellow eyes, wearing her usual outfit, a slate-colored jacket with a light blue trim, a light yellow jumper, a white dress shirt with a blue tie and heart-shaped clip, a short black skirt with black socks that reach below her knees, and brown shoes.
"That's it?" Angela asked.
"He smells 'like death.' " Aoi nodded. "Isn't that shocking?"
"No." Angela replied. "not really. Who's next?"
Dexter Hayano waved his skinny right arm in the air. He glanced at the piece of a paper in front of him and then folded it up and put it in his left pocket with his left hand. Dexter Hayano, a 15 year old boy, had fair skin, chin length brown hair, brown eyes, wearing grey squared glasses, a white collared shirt with a red bow tie and red suspenders, navy blue shorts, white knee socks, and brown dress shoes.
"He must have memorized his quote." Rebecca thought, impressed.
Dexter looked around the table and began. "I want to be Angela Raines's assistant because she is the most beautiful, intelligent, interesting reporter working today," he said in a steady voice. "I admire her courage, her sense of justice, and her perfect smile. I remember the first time I saw her on television. I was—"
"Time out." Angela interrupted. "Is any of this going to be about Daiki Sora and his cult?"
Dexter's eyes crossed. "I thought you just wanted the best quote." he said.
"Next." Angela said dismissively. Dexter opened his mouth and shut it again, clearly not understanding where he'd gone wrong.
"Poor guy." Akiza whispered in Rebecca's left ear.
Next was Carlyle Chesterton. Nervous at the best of times, he glued his eyes to his notebook and read in a rushed monotone. " 'Those Hirutani's gang are into heavy metal music, and everyone knows that if you play that stuff backward, it will make you eat the head off a bat, and then you'll run into the street screaming and your eyeballs will explode and your brains will go everywhere!' "
Carlyle Chesterton, was a 16 year old boy, had fair skin, dark brown hair with light brown bangs, green eyes, wearing a white short sleeved shirt with blue lines sleeves and collar, a blue tie, long blue pants, and brown shoes.
"Who said that?" Angela asked.
"My cousin Girag." Carlyle told her. "He's in College."
"Well, he's absolutely right." Angela said. "Unfortunately, heavy metal is old news."
"At this rate." Rebecca thought hopefully. "I just might get the assistant job." She took a deep breath and raised her hand.
"Let's hear it." Angela said inviting.
"My quote is from Domino's very concerned guidance counselor, Mr. Banner." Rebecca said. "Mr. Banner has long suspected that something is very wrong with students in Domino. According to him, this latest incident at the graveyard was a perfect example of the sinister problem that is threatening our community."
"This sounds promising." Angela murmured.
Akiza looked at Rebecca encouragingly.
"Mr. Banner has done some digging into the school records." Rebecca continued. "and he's noticed a disturbing pattern. It appears students aren't getting enough sleep at night. In fact, he would bet that Domino has more students falling asleep in class than anywhere else in the nation!"
"Why?" Angela asked.
"Yes, why is that?" Principal Morty asked.
Rebecca raised her eyebrows. "I think you'll all be shocked by the answer." she said. Then she paused for effect and cleared her throat. "I quote Mr. Banner directly: 'What, exactly, are these students doing when normal people are in bed? Horrible things. Unnatural things!' "
Angela Raines's eyes were wider than Rebecca had ever seen them. Rebecca leaned back in her seat and shared a triumphant look with Akiza.
After a second, Angela said, "Don't stop there."
"W-what?" Rebecca stammered.
"Tell us the rest of your quote. What kind of 'unnatural' things?"
Rebecca hesitated. She had really hoped that what she'd read would be enough to do the trick.
"Go on!" Angela insisted, and Akiza looked at Rebecca hopefully.
Rebecca read Mr. Banner's quote in its entirety, her voice getting quieter and quieter as she went along. " 'What, exactly, are these students doing when normal people are in bed? Horrible things. Unnatural things! Eating junk foods packed with additives, listening to portable music devices, surfing the Internet, playing video games, watching satellite television beamed from the sky. This insomniac epidemic is destroying our youth!' "
Angela tapped her pink fingernails on the table. "I liked the beginning." she said. "but then you lost me. Help me out here. Is the scoop that kids are staying up late?"
"Exactly." Rebecca agreed.
Angela nodded. "I was afraid so." Then she added, "What a snooze."
Everyone laughed.
Rebecca pressed her hands into the table. "The truth is sometimes less sensational than we imagine, Ms. Raines." She said.
"I know." Angela said. "Isn't that the worst?"
Rebecca closed her notebook, trying not to look defeated. She knew that her quote wasn't what Angela Raines was hoping for, but maybe the beginning would be good enough to get her the assistant job. "Or at least." Rebecca thought doubtfully, convince her that there's no deep, dark secret in Domino.
Soon the only person left to try out was Caswell. He pulled a leather briefcase up onto the table and said, "Before I begin, allow me to thank you, Angela Raines, for this extraordinary opportunity." Then he opened the briefcase and pulled out a single piece of typed paper, as if he were about to present an opening argument before the Supreme Court.
"I owe my quote to the dental profession." Caswell began, stowing away his briefcase. "And, more specifically, to my dental hygienist, Ms. Fonda Fontaine."
Angela was not looking impressed.
"Next to dentistry, my quote might not seem so boring after all." Rebecca thought, brightening.
"Allow me to explain." Caswell continued. "I was at a dentist appointment yesterday afternoon, when a repeat of the morning edition of The Morning Raines came on the television above my chair. Ms. Fontaine, who was cleaning my teeth at the time, said that she recognized Daiki Sora. He had recently come to the dentist's office."
Suddenly, a dark and heavy feeling spread through Rebecca's chest. She and Akiza exchanged worried glances as Caswell said, "Ms. Fontaine said it was a very strange visit."
Angela Raines leaned forward, clearly interested now.
"I nearly choked on the suction tube trying to ask her more about it. Here is what she said..." Caswell looked down at his sheet of paper. " 'Daiki Sora came into the office last Thursday. He wanted to know how he wanted to show off his fangs.' "
Rebecca felt her skin flush, and she thought she might faint. She closed her eyes, trying to make the dizziness go away, and felt Akiza grab her hand tightly underneath the table. Rebecca opened her eyes to find Angela Raines Rainesing right at her. Rebecca looked away quickly.
" 'We all thought it was such a strange request,' " Caswell said, continuing his quote, " 'especially because he isn't even one of Dr. Goat's patients.' "
"What happened?" Angela pressed.
"Nothing." Caswell shrugged. "The receptionist told him he'd have to talk to Dr. Goat, who was seeing a patient at the time, so Daiki said he'd come back later—but he never did."
Angela Raines was on her feet. "Did he say what the fangs were for?"
"No." Caswell replied.
"Is she—the dental assistant lady—is she willing to go on camera?" Angela asked.
Caswell nodded. "I think so." He said.
Angela Raines's wide eyes went Rainesry. "I can see the on-screen graphic now." she murmured, spreading her hands in the air like she was making words appear on an invisible TV screen. "FANGTASTIC!"
Then she blinked, picked up her bag, and gestured to her camera man. "Principal Morty." she said, barely looking his way, "I'm taking Caswell out of school for the rest of the day on fieldwork. Caswell, let's go!"
"But who won the assistant job?" Aoi Zaizen blurted.
"Who do you think?" Angela shot back. And, with that, she charged out the door, closely followed by Caswell Francis, grinning widely as he hurried to catch up.
Rebecca was about to bury her face in her hands when she heard a blubbering noise. Dexter Hayano had burst into tears.
"Don't blame yourself, Rebecca." Akiza said as they trudged down the hall. "How could anyone compete with a quote like that?"
"I know." Rebecca said. "But this is seriously bad news, Akiza." She looked around to make sure no one was listening. "A vampire showing their fangs off? What was Daiki thinking?"
"Probably that his mom would kill him if he let his own incisors grow." Akiza said gloomily.
"But why would he do that?" Rebecca said, utterly exasperated.
"You know the answer to that." Akiza said, rolling her eyes. "There isn't a dentist in our community who would agree to do it!"
"She was right." Rebecca thought. Hiding your fangs—or even not even hiding them properly—violated the 1836 Bylaw of the Night: A vampire will never try, or conspire to try, to bite a human. The risk of getting caught was too great, not to mention the fact that it was incredibly evil.
"Anyway." Akiza said. "it's time for plan B: damage control. We have to keep an eye on Caswell and on what he and Angela are finding out."
"And how do you suggest we do that?" Rebecca asked.
"I was sort of thinking that maybe you could become Caswell's new best friend." Akiza suggested.
"As if." Rebecca replied. "Did you see that tie he was wearing today? I don't really think I'm his type."
"Come on." Akiza teased. "You'd look killer in a bowl cut."
That gave Rebecca an idea. "I might not be the right person," she said, looking down the hall. "but I think I know who is."
Rebecca hurried over to join her sister, who was opening her locker.
"Did you get the job?" Becky asked hopefully.
Rebecca shook her head, and Becky's face fell. "We lost to a quote about Daiki Sora asking a dentist for hiding his fangs." Rebecca admitted.
Becky winced. "That doesn't sound good. What are we going to do now?" she asked.
"I'm glad you asked." Rebecca said. "We're going to make sure we know what Angela Raines's finding out even before she does."
"How?" Becky asked.
Rebecca smiled. "Well, Becky, have I ever told you how seriously great you are at making friends?" she asked.
Becky looked at her suspiciously. "Why do I think you're buttering me up for something?" she asked.
"I'm not." Rebecca answered innocently. "I just thought you might like to make Caswell Francis the next new friend on your list."
"Caswell Francis?" Becky repeated. "I know him. He's in my math class. He's nice. A little boring, though."
"Not anymore." said Rebecca. "Now he's bound to have some interesting stories to tell; he's Angela Raines's new assistant on her Domino investigations."
Becky took this in. "I'd better Rainest befriending." she said.
End Of Chapter 1.
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