“Hi,” Phillip said flatly, and went back to the comics. They were the only thing the twins had in common. Poppy had to admit that he had nice eyes: questing green eyes with very dark lashes. He lifted his gaze from the comic section of the L.A. Phillip, who was used to his sister’s moods, was unimpressed. “Hello, Phillip,” she said in a voice heavy with menace. well, that just showed a certain deliberate malice in the makeup of the universe, didn’t it? It was bad enough to be small, slight, and curly-haired-to look, in fact, as much like an elf as anything she’d ever seen sitting on a buttercup in a children’s picture book-but to have a twin who was tall, Viking-blond, and classically handsome. Then she narrowed her eyes again, this time at him. She maintained the dignity until she got to the kitchen, where Phillip, her twin brother, was eating Special K. How childish, how-cute! Poppy stuck her tongue out at herself and then turned away with great dignity, without bothering to comb the wild coppery curls that clustered over her head. Four and a half, if she were completely honest, which Poppy North usually was. Then she leaned forward, seeing her own green eyes narrow in suspicion.

“Stick with me, kid, and you’ll be fine,” she whispered to it, and gave a conspiratorial wink. Poppy straightened and regarded her tousled reflection triumphantly. At first she thought she was going to throw up, but then the pain eased as suddenly as it had come. Grimly, doubled over-think positive, idiot!-she made her way down the hall to the turquoise-and-gold-tiled bathroom. A little power of positive thinking is what’s needed here. I refuse to be sick during summer vacation. Sort of a gnawing, as if something were eating its way toward her back. Poppy pushed them aside and jumped out of bed-and winced. Sunlight was streaming in the window, turning the sheer hangings around her bed filmy gold. Poppy woke up feeling gloriously weightless and thought, No school. It happened on Monday, the first real day of vacation (the weekend didn’t count). It was on the first day of summer vacation that Poppy found out she was going to die.

Night World, No. 1 by L.J. Smith