Never Bite a Boy on the First Date by Tamara Summers Page A

the one we saw yesterday,” Olympia said.
    “Rowan something,” I said. “I know. I thought I’d try to meet him today. Crystal, would you help me with my makeup?”
    “Oooo, yes!” Crystal chirped, bouncing up and down.
    Not having a reflection anymore is a huge pain in the butt. You try getting ready for high school every morning with no mirror. I’ve mostly given up on wearing makeup these days; otherwise I’d have to wake up Crystal every morning to do it for me. It’s pretty difficult to put on eyeliner when you can’t even tell where your eyes are . But I figured that on this occasion it would be helpful to be as cute as possible—you know, if I was going to subtly investigate cute boys. Not for flirting purposes, of course. Just for clue-finding and mystery-solving, yes, sir.
    The good news is, I can still see my clothes, although in the mirror they kind of look like they’re floating in space, which is not alwayshelpful. Yes, a vampire has no reflection, but our clothes still do. I mean, why would our clothes suddenly not show up in mirrors? Wouldn’t that be weird? It’s not like anybody sucked all the blood out of my sweaters or anything.
    The same is true for anything we put on ourselves—earrings, makeup, et cetera. For instance, Olympia recommends that we all dye our hair regularly. The fake color shows up in mirrors, which is enough to trick most people. If, out of the corner of their eyes, they catch clothes and hair going by in a mirror, they probably won’t notice the missing face and hands.
    Of course, I think Olympia was picturing a nice brown or blond or even red for me. She dyes her own hair black, which if you ask me is a little cliché.
    Me? I went for green.
    Not bright, crazy, Kermit green or anything. I have pretty dark hair usually, although I used to get highlights every other month that kept my hair a light, shiny brown. But once I realized Mom couldn’t stop me anymore, I let it grow out dark, so with the hair dye it ends up being this kind of a dark forest green. You can’t spot thegreen right away in most lights, but in the sunshine suddenly you’re like, Poof, emerald!
    Well, I think it’s cool.
    My mom would have had a heart attack. We used to have enormous fights because I wanted a belly button ring (which I now have, thanks very much). Olympia just wrinkled her nose at my dark green hair, then shrugged and said, I’ve seen worse.”
    That pretty much sums up the difference in their parenting styles.
    After breakfast, Crystal carefully applied eyeliner and mascara and lipstick to my face. I had to be very stern with her when she pulled out the bright green eye shadow, though. She loves bright colors (I know, it’s not very vampire-y of her) and she insisted it would look perfect with my eyes. Crystal has told me a few times that my eyes are greener than they used to be, in sort of an iridescent way. I’d really like to check this out myself, but of course that’s impossible. However, I can still be pretty sure that bright green eye shadow is not the way to go.
    “Oh, fine,” Crystal huffed. “I suppose you look very pretty anyway.”
    She helped me pick out a jean miniskirt, knee-high black boots and black tights, and a green fitted tee with a grumpy-looking anime panda on it. I added a black hoodie, since it was early October and starting to get colder outside. You know how vampires in the old movies wore big cloaks with the collars turned up, all sinister-like? Wilhelm says he used to wear those all the time, because it was a great way to hide your face if a mirror popped up. Hooded sweatshirts are the same way, like the modern-day version of those cloaks, stylish and updated for hip teenage vampires of the twenty-first century.
    “ So cute,” Crystal proclaimed.
    “Really?” I said, turning around and trying to figure out what I looked like. “So cute that you’d spill your deepest, darkest secrets to me? Like, for instance, that you threw a guy out a