SWEET VALLEY HIGH
All night Long
SWEET VALLEY HIGH
Double Love
Secrets
Playing with Fire
Power Play
All night Long
Dangerous Love
SWEET VALLEY HIGH
All night Long
WRITTEN BY KATE WILLIAM
CREATED BY FRANCINE PASCAL
LAUREL LEAF BOOKS
Published by Laurel-leaf an imprint of Random House Children's Books a division of Random House, Inc. New York
Sale of this book without a front cover maybe unauthorized. If the book is coverless, it may have been reported to the publisher as "unsold or destroyed" and neither the author nor the publisher may have received payment for it.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Text copyright © 1984 by Francine Pascal Revised text copyright © 2008 by Francine Pascal
All rights reserved.
Originally produced by Cloverdale Press Originally published by Bantam Books, New York, in 1984
Laurel-leaf and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc. Sweet Valley High® is a registered trademark of Francine Pascal Conceived by Francine Pascal
Visit us on the Web! www.randomhouse.com/teens
Educators and librarians, for a variety of teaching tools, visit us atwww.randomhouse.com/teachers
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
William, Kate. All night long / written by Kate William ; created by Francine Pascal.-ist Laurel-Leaf ed. p. cm.-(Sweet Valley High ; 5) Summary: Elizabeth worries when her twin Jessica sneaks off to a college beach party with her latest boyfriend and stays out all night.
ISBN 978-0-440-42273-0 (pbk.) [1. Conduct of life-Fiction. 2. Twins-Fiction. 3. Sisters-Fiction. 4. High schools-Fiction. 5. Schools-Fiction.] I. Pascal, Francine. II. Title. PZ7.W65549A1 2008 [Fic]-dc22 2008001889
RL: 6
December 2008 Printed in the United States of America 10987654321 First Laurel-Leaf Edition
Random House Children's Books supports the First Amendment and celebrates the right to read.
***
"What do you think? I'm going for 'sophisticated celebutante.'"
Jessica Wakefield stood poised before the full-length mirror in her twin sister's bedroom, chin thrown back, her glossy blond hair tumbling over her bare shoulder.
Elizabeth glanced up from her computer, where she was working on her latest entry for her gossip blog, The Insider. She narrowed her blue-green eyes as she took in her sister's heavy makeup and not-so-heavy clothing. The pink minidress she was
wearing was so light, in fact, it was barely even there.
"Sophisticated celebutante? As in those loser girls who are always on the cover of Us Weekly for getting arrested or starting fights in clubs or acting like total sluts?" Elizabeth replied.
"Liz-" Jessica rolled her eyes.
"Because if that's what you're going for, you've nailed it," Elizabeth finished, typing another line into her computer. "There's no way Mom's letting you out of the house like that. And didn't she already forbid you to go to this stupid party anyway?"
Jessica inspected her outfit from another angle.
"Well, what she doesn't know won't hurt her, right?"
Elizabeth sighed and sat back in her chair, crossing her arms over her plain navy blue T-shirt. "So, what's your plan this time? Hide that outfit under something that actually covers some skin until you get out the door? Lie about where you're going? Or are you just going to sneak out your window and twist your ankle falling from the eaves again?"
"God! You're such a prude," Jessica complained with a pout.
"Yeah, well, whatever your plan is for tomorrow, don't include me," Elizabeth said. She was so over her sister's antics. For the last sixteen years, Elizabeth had found herself covering for Jessica practically every other day, and as of that day, she was done. Done.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Jessica said with an innocent smile--the same dimple-cheeked smile Elizabeth had, though Elizabeth's never looked as fake. "I'm spending the day with Cara tomorrow."
"Right," Elizabeth said sarcastically, glancing at her notes. "Since when does Cara have ill-advised facial hair and drive a black Viper?"
Jessica giggled. "Omigod. Cara would die if she heard you say that! Did you know she's been waxing her lip since seventh grade?"
Elizabeth's eyebrows shot up. Interesting. One of the most popular girls in school with a hidden 'stache? That might be a good tidbit for The Insider. But of course, she'd never be so cruel as to reveal something that one of Jessica's friends had worked so hard to keep secret.
"Come on, Jess. There's no way you're going to be able to hide this from Mom and Dad," Elizabeth
said. "You can hear his car coming from ten miles away. And honestly? I agree with them. Scott is way too old for you."
Elizabeth had first met Scott Daniels the past weekend when he'd come to pick Jessica up at Casa del Sol, where they'd been hanging out with all their friends. It wasn't just his age that bothered Elizabeth. It was the insipid "twice as nice" comment he'd made when Jessica had introduced them-as if Liz hadn't heard that one before. And the way he'd greeted their friends with an indifferent nod, checking the place out as if he was looking for someone better to talk to. Plus he kept spinning his keys around his finger and checking his T-Mobile for texts. It was as if he was already looking forward to his next stop or trying to find someplace cooler to be. Elizabeth was surprised that Jessica, who preferred to be the center of her date's attention at all times, wanted anything to do with the guy.
Except for one thing: Scott was drop-dead gorgeous, even with the scruffy blond stubble around his mouth. Tall and tan, with sun-kissed, shaggy dark blond hair and a smile that could melt a thousand
hearts, he had made all the girls at Casa drool. Even Elizabeth had found him attractive-until he'd opened his mouth. Plus he was a junior at SVU and a member of Delta Epsilon Delta-supposedly the coolest fraternity on campus. Elizabeth couldn't care less about those things, but to Jessica, they were swoonworthy. She'd been head over heels for Scott since they'd met a few weeks before at the beach.
"Please. Could you sound any more like Mom?" Jessica asked, diving into Elizabeth's closet in search of a pair of shoes. "It's the fact that he's older that makes him so perfect," she shouted, her voice muffled as she tossed sandals and flats and sneakers--shoes that had been perfectly organized and stashed away-over her shoulder onto the floor of the bedroom at random. "No stupid, childish games. I am so over high school guys!"
Elizabeth rolled her eyes. If her sister thought that guy was more mature than the boys at SVH, the girl was totally blind. Liz was only four minutes older than her twin, but sometimes she felt it was more like four years.
Jessica had a talent for attracting trouble the way
a magnet attracts metal. And more often than not, Liz was the one she turned to for help when she got in over her head. The problem was that no matter how much Elizabeth protested, Jessica knew that her sister would always end up helping her out. And she took advantage of that whenever she could.
But not this t ime, Elizabeth thought resolutely.
"This halter top would look so hot with my red skirt," Jessica said, flipping her hair off her face as she emerged from the closet. She held up a scrap of white eyelet fabric. "Can I borrow it?"
"Jess, that's a scarf."
"Yeah, but if you tie it like this, it's a halter top!" Jessica replied, quickly knotting the ends behind her back, over her strapless minidress.
"Uh, if you wear that around Scott, you might as well wear a sign on your forehead that says 'ready and willing,'" Elizabeth told her, hitting the Enter button to send her column to her printer so that she could read it over.
"There's nothing wrong with showing a little skin, Liz," Jessica said. "We're young. We're hot. Why not?"
Elizabeth tried not to gag.
"I mean, seriously, you're totally wasting your bod dressing the way you do," Jessica continued, pulling a pair of Elizabeth's sandals from the pile. "You should play it up more. You could so rock the sexy-librarian look. Now you just look like, you know, a librarian."
Elizabeth laughed as she got up to retrieve her column. "Well, if rocking the sexy-librarian look means attracting guys like Scott, no thanks."
Scott had invited her along to this party his fraternity was throwing on the lake, but she had no interest. She had, in fact, been relieved when her mother had vetoed the whole thing. Everyone had heard about Delta Epsilon Delta's parties, and while most people thought that kind of debauchery was cool, Elizabeth definitely did not. Earlier in the year a couple of girls from the SVH cheerleading squad had crashed the Delta house on the night of one of their raves and had quickly discovered that they were overdressed. The rave had a pajama party-theme. All the guys had been in boxers and all the girls had been in nighties and all the furniture had been replaced with mattresses. Unsurprisingly, the
whole thing had gotten seriously out of control, especially with all the beer that had been flowing.
A beach party at the lake in the middle of the day sounded innocent by comparison, but with the Delta crowd, anything was possible.
"Well, whatever," Jessica said. "I like Scott and I like his friends and I'm not going to let Mom's arbitrary rules stop me from having fun. Unlike some people I know."
"Even if it means getting caught and getting grounded for the rest of your life?" Elizabeth asked.
"How am I going to get caught?" Jessica untied the scarf and tossed it onto Elizabeth's impeccably made bed. "I have the perfect alibi. Mom thinks I'm driving up the coast with Cara's family for the day. It's all set."
"And Mom believed that?"
Jessica flashed her innocent smile once again.
"Why wouldn't she? Would this face ever lie?"
"Urn, only all the time!" Elizabeth said with a laugh.
"Well, I didn't lie. Not really. I just rearranged the truth," Jessica said, shrugging. "I told Mom that Cara had invited me to go along. I didn't exactly say I was going."
"Oh my God. You don't really think that's going to get you out of this if they catch you, do you?" Elizabeth asked.
Jessica's eyes flashed. "You know something? I think you're jealous."
"Of what? Of you and Scott? You've got to be kidding," Elizabeth said, dropping her pages onto her desk. "He is so not my type."
"Please! You don't even know him!" Jessica retorted.
"That's the point! Neither do you!" Elizabeth replied, raising her voice to match Jessica's. "What if things get out of hand up at the lake? How are you going to get home? Those people are all his friends, not yours."
"I can take care of myself," Jessica announced sullenly.
"The way you took care of yourself with Rick Andover?" Elizabeth shot back.
Not that long before, Jessica, thinking she could "take care of" herself, had gone out with Rick Andover, a guy whose reputation was just as bad as Delta Epsilon Delta's. She had ended up nearly getting killed in a drag race and had been escorted home by the police.
Jessica's face turned blotchy and red. "I cannot believe you'd throw that in my face!" she spat. "You know how traumatizing that was for me!"
"You're right. I do. So how can you forget it so quickly?" Elizabeth replied, crossing her arms over her chest.
Jessica turned away from her sister, silently fuming. She bent down and grabbed Elizabeth's sandals, then yanked the scarf from her bed.
"Whatever. Rick is in the past. Lesson learned. Scott is nothing like him."
Elizabeth felt a thump of foreboding. There was definite uncertainly in her sister's voice. Liz took a deep breath and decided to change the subject before the conversation got completely out of hand. Maybe if she tried another tack...
"What about the test, Jess?" she asked. "How do you expect to pass it if you're out partying the day before?"
The test for the tour guide license was scheduled for the day after the party. If Elizabeth and Jessica passed, they would both land part-time jobs as tour guides the next summer, spending their days showing tourists around the beautiful coastline of Sweet
Valley. It was something they had both been planning to do since they were little, and Elizabeth knew it wouldn't be nearly as much fun without Jessica.
"I'll take care of the test, if you promise not to tell Mom," Jessica replied.
Elizabeth shook her head. "I'm not promising anything. If she asks me, I'm not going to lie."
"Liz!" Jessica cried.
"Jess!" Liz replied, echoing her tone.
"Some friend you are," Jessica said, grabbing a couple more of Elizabeth's things from the closet without asking.
"I'm probably the best friend you've got," Elizabeth replied dryly. "You just don't know it."
"Okay," Jessica said. She tossed her hair over her shoulder. "Just don't come running to me when you need my help someday."
Then she turned and stormed out of Elizabeth's room, slamming the door behind her. In her hands were the shoes and the scarf and various other items, which Elizabeth had never said she could have.
***
"Don't let it bother you. You're not doing anything wrong," Enid Rollins advised Elizabeth as she took a bite of her taco salad.
It was Sunday afternoon and Liz and her best friend had stopped at Casa del Sol, a regular SVH hangout, for a snack on their way to the beach. Elizabeth had ordered one of her favorites--vegetarian tacos--but she could only pick at them. All she could think about was Jessica speeding toward Secca Lake in that awful black Viper.
"I haven't done anything wrong yet," Elizabeth said, correcting herself. "I just hope my mom doesn't get suspicious and ask me what's really going on."
"So? If she does, tell her," Enid said, her green eyes wide. "Maybe for once you should let Jessica get in trouble."
Elizabeth sighed. There was no love lost between her best friend and her twin sister. Not after Jessica had sullied Enid's name by leaking some info about her past that Enid would rather have kept a secret. Even though it had all worked out in the end, Enid was never going to truly forgive Jessica.
"It's not that simple. She is still my sister,"
Elizabeth explained. "I don't know what it is, but it's like I have this need to protect her."
"It's because you're such a good person," Enid said, implying that Jessica was the total opposite.
"You know what, we're supposed to be having fun today, so let's just have fun." Enid tossed her hair back as she popped a nacho chip into her mouth.
"Let Jessica worry about Jessica."
"You're right," Elizabeth replied, mustering a smile. "Besides, who knows? Maybe everything is going to be just fine."
They finished up their lunches and headed for the beach, which was fairly crowded by the time they arrived. Elizabeth chose a spot near the lifeguard station, which would provide a few patches of shade from the scorching afternoon sun, and she and Enid laid out their towels. Liz was just about done spreading lotion up her arms when a shadow fell across her face. She squinted up into the gorgeous brown eyes of her boyfriend, Todd Wilkins.
"Why, hello, miss. Need some help with that?" he asked, snatching the tube of sunblock away from her.
"Well, if you insist, kind sir," she joked in response.
Todd laughed and applied a layer of sunblock to her back, taking his time as he kneaded her shoulders and covered every inch of her bare skin. Elizabeth's heart beat a bit faster at his touch, and suddenly it wasn't just the sun that was keeping her warm.
"Thanks," she said.
"Anytime," Todd replied with a mischievous grin. He dropped onto the towel between her and Enid and leaned back on his elbows, exposing his long, lean torso to the sun. "So, where's the evil twin?" he joked.
"Oh, uh..."
For a moment she was at a loss for words. Todd hated it when she covered up for Jessica. Should she tell him the truth and divulge her part in it or use Jessica's white lie?
"She's hanging out with Cara and her family today," Enid said quickly.
Elizabeth smiled her thanks. At least now she couldn't be blamed for lying to her own boyfriend. Jessica would have been proud of that logic.
"Hey, there's Will," Todd said, sitting up and shielding his eyes from the sun.
He got up to flag down his friend Will Chase, who was walking toward the water with a surfboard tucked under his arm. Will smiled and loped over, his long blond hair hanging loosely around his perfectly cut cheekbones. He shoved his board into the sand to stand it up and slapped hands with Todd.
"Whaddup, man?" Todd said.
"Todd," Will replied. "Ladies," he said with a nod.
Will had always been a guy of few words.
"Surf looks killer today, huh?" Todd said.
"Not bad," Will agreed, checking out the waves.
Elizabeth squinted at the ocean and the surfers bobbing just beyond the surf line. As a new wave swelled, one of them broke away from the others, catching it at the perfect moment. He swooped toward the shore, riding the huge wave with such ease and grace it could have been a ripple.
"Who's that?" Elizabeth asked. "He looks like a pro."
"Sonny Callahan," Will answered, never taking
his eyes off the surfer. A cloud seemed to cross over his handsome features.
"Who's Sonny Callahan?" Enid asked.
Todd glanced warily at Will, but Will seemed mesmerized by the waves. "He's one of the best wave-riders in the state," Todd explained. "Apparently he came down for the regional competition."
"Oh." Elizabeth suddenly understood Will's change of expression. The guy lived and breathed surfing. Ever since Liz could remember, Will had been telling everyone that when he turned sixteen, he would be entering at regionals. This was his year, and everyone at SVH was sure that he would win and move on to the state finals. But now Sonny Callahan had shown up to throw a wrench in all that.
"Whatever. He's not that good," Enid said, trying to lighten the mood.
Will sighed and yanked his board out of the sand. "I'd better get out there." He slapped hands with Todd again. "Call you later?"
"Right," Todd said, glancing at Elizabeth shiftily.
"Later."
As Will trudged off toward the waves, Elizabeth narrowed her eyes at Todd. "What was that all about?"
"What?" he asked, dropping down next to her again but avoiding eye contact.
"That. 'Call you later,'" she said, imitating Will's low, rumbling voice. "You got all nervous."
"Yeah, right," Todd said with a laugh. "I think the sun is frying your brain."
He glanced around the beach and something caught his eye. "Hey. Isn't that Cara over there?"
At first, Elizabeth was going to accuse him of changing the subject, but then what he'd said sunk in and she whipped around. Sure enough, Cara Walker was striding toward the lemonade stand in a pink bikini, without Jessica. "I thought you said she and Jessica were hanging out with her family," Todd said.
Elizabeth's heart sank. One little white lie and it got exposed in less than five minutes. What was Cara doing there? Had Jessica invented the entire story about the Walker family driving up the coast?
"Yeah. They're supposed to be," Elizabeth said,
shoving herself up and dusting the sand from her legs. "I'll be right back."
She jogged across the scorching sand and caught up with Cara just as Cara was placing her order for a large mango lemonade. It was the trendy beach drink of the moment and Cara was nothing if not a follower.
"Hey, Cara," Liz greeted her, out of breath.
"Hi, Liz," Cara said. She looked Liz up and down and scrunched her pretty little nose. "Why so sweaty?"
"What are you doing here? I thought you and your parents were driving up the coast today," Elizabeth said.
Cara shook her glossy black hair back as the guy behind the counter handed over her lemonade.
"We were supposed to, but Mom got this emergency call from the hospital at the last minute. Had to go deliver twins or something. So annoying. Don't people, like, schedule these things these days?" she asked before taking a sip from her straw.
"Yeah. How inconsiderate of the woman to go into labor when you had plans," Elizabeth said sarcastically.
"I know, right?" Cara replied, wide-eyed.
Elizabeth didn't even bother explaining how insane Cara sounded. "Jessica told my parents she was going with you," she said, stepping away from the window so that the next customer could order.
"What if someone spots you here?"
"Who? Like your parents?" Cara scoffed. "When was the last time Ned and Alice came to the beach?"
She had a point there.
"Besides, I wasn't going to waste a perfectly gorgeous Sunday sitting on my butt in front of a Beauty and the Geek marathon just so Jessica wouldn't get caught in a lie," Cara said. "She's a big girl. She can take care of herself."
Elizabeth had no response to that, mostly because she agreed with it. Why should Cara's Sunday be ruined because Jessica was off being her selfish self? Why should hers, for that matter?
"You're right. I'll see you later, Cara," Elizabeth said.
"Later!" Cara trilled.
Elizabeth walked back to her friends, determined to relax and have a good time. But before she even
reached her towel, that gnawing sensation had returned to her stomach. That inkling that Jessica had gotten herself in over her head. She checked her cell phone as she dropped to the sand, but there were no messages.
"Everything okay?" Enid asked.
Todd was in the water cooling off, so Elizabeth didn't have to explain the Cara situation yet. She hoped Todd would simply forget about it.
"Yeah, I guess," Elizabeth replied with a sigh. "For now."
***
" You should have seen the look on Ms. Potter's face when she caught Bobby sneaking out of my room the other morning. She actually asked him what he was doing in our house. I mean, has the woman never had a one-night stand?"
"Oh, please. I wouldn't be surprised if that hag was a virgin."
"Come on. She's at least sixty. She can't be."
"Uh, have you seen those pictures of her in the old pledge books? Two words: Fug. Ly."
The three girls cracked up laughing and Jessica's
face grew warm. She was dying to ask a million questions. Like what was it really like living in a sorority house? Who the heck was Ms. Potter? And how fugly, exactly, was she? But she knew that if she so much as opened her mouth, she would come off as naive and babyish, like the high school junior she was. So she simply kept her eyes shut, pretending to be asleep, until one of them poked her in the ribs and asked to borrow her suntan lotion.
"Sure," Jessica said. She flipped over onto her stomach and dug through her quilted beach bag until she found the bottle.
"Thanks," the girl replied. "I've got nothing but SPF 45 and I am determined to be tan before the homecoming game."
She slathered Jessica's SPF 8 all over her long, slim arms. As far as Jessica was concerned, the girl already had a flawless tan, and her white two-piece showed it off perfectly. Her long, dark hair was slicked back and secured with a white headband, and she wore the exact celeb-worthy sunglasses Jessica had been coveting at the mall the past weekend. The girl was sophistication personified.
"Thanks," she said, handing the lotion over when she was done. "What's your name again? Jennifer?"
"Jessica," she responded, blushing. "What's yours?"
"I'm Aubrey and this is Greta and Beau," she said, pointing at the other two. Both of them smiled tightly, clearly disinterested.
"Nice to meet you," Jessica said, turning to look out across the lake, where Scott and the other guys were swimming. She could be disinterested too. She could be disinterested with the best of them. Especially considering that this day was already not turning out the way she had assumed it would. When Scott had said that some of his frat buddies were throwing a party, she had imagined that the whole fraternity would be there with their friends-hundreds of people milling around, talking and having fun. Instead, it was just eight of them-her and Scott and three other couples--and so far she was bored out of her mind. At least one of the guys, Lance, had a lake cabin nearby that they could use for the bathroom and to change clothes in. It was better than using the beach park's public rest-rooms.
"That Bobby thing is nothing," Beau said, digging her manicured toes into the sand. "Did I ever tell you about the time Robert and I went camping for the weekend? I told my parents I was staying with Sarah, because they never call to check on me, but then my grandmother ended up in the hospital, so they called, and Sarah caved in about five seconds. Told them exactly where we were. Next thing I know, my dad's opening the flap on our tent with his shotgun."
"Shut up !" Greta said.
"I'm totally not kidding," Beau replied seriously.
Aubrey and Greta laughed and even Jessica had to smile. Beau painted a funny picture.
"So, Jessica," Aubrey said, surprising her. "How long have you and Scott been together?"
Jessica's brain flipped right into storytelling mode. There was no way she was going to tell these girls that this was only her second date with Scott. She knew exactly what they would do: laugh her off as a fluke. And that was the last thing she wanted. Not only was Scott the hottest guy she had ever dated, but being with him was just thrilling. Something about the covetous way he looked at
her, the casual way he approached life, the way nothing seemed to affect him made him beyond appealing. He was so confident, so in control. It made her feel both safe and uncertain at the same time. And she liked that feeling.
"Long enough," she said blithely, shaking her hair over her shoulders.
There was a moment of silence as Aubrey and her friends exchanged knowing looks. Jessica's heart thumped with foreboding.
"Listen, Jessica, there's something you should know about Scott-girl to girl," Aubrey said, pulling her knees up and draping her arms casually over her calves. "He kind of has a reputation around campus. We're not sure exactly how much of it is true, but let's just say none of us have ever let him get us alone."
Jessica stared at Aubrey blankly. What did that mean? She was about to ask, naïveté be damned, when a shadow, followed by a sprinkle of cold water, fell across her body.
"You talking about me?" Scott asked with a casual smile. "I mean, really, girls," he said, glancing past Jessica at the others, "when are you going to
stop fighting over me already and just accept the fact that I'm taken?" Scott sat down beside Jessica and draped a wet arm over her shoulders. "I mean, have you seen this girl?" he joked, looking Jessica up and down from head to toe in a way that made her warm all over. "No offense, but why even bother trying to compete?"
Aubrey and the other girls rolled their eyes, but Jessica couldn't have stopped grinning if she'd tried. Clearly Scott really liked her, to talk about her like that in front of his friends. Any thoughts of his supposed reputation flew right out of her head.
As the girls got back to talking, Scott leaned into Jessica's side and tickled her neck with his lips. Jessica giggled and tilted her head to give him better access, and he worked his way up to her cheekbone, sending chills all through her. Finally, his lips paused on her earlobe.
"Why didn't you come in the water?" he whispered. "I missed you out there."
Jessica took a breath to squelch the shiver of excitement that shot through her. She turned and looked into his steel blue eyes, but her gaze quickly traveled down to his tan, muscled chest,
still glistening with lake water. This guy couldn't have been any hotter if he'd tried.
"I missed you up here," she replied with a slow smile.
Scott leaned in to kiss her and his fingers skittered across her bare belly, making her squirm happily. Then, as his tongue searched hers, she felt his thumb hook around the slim side strap on her bikini bottom and something inside her caught. The gesture felt too possessive. Except with Bruce Patman, Jessica had always been the one to call the shots with her boyfriends, dictating how fast or slow things went. And usually, the boys were so enamored of her they had no problem following her lead. But she had a feeling it wouldn't be that easy with Scott. He was more mature and experienced. The word "reputation" floated through her mind again. What kind of reputation, exactly?
Jessica pulled away and slipped Scott's hand from her bikini. For a second, he looked surprised, but then she brought his hand to her lips and kissed his fingers, looking him right in the eye. The maneuver had the desired effect. Scott was officially distracted from her clothing, or lack thereof.
"Get a room!" one of the guys shouted at Scott as they made their way back up the sand. They dropped down next to their girlfriends and one of them pried open the cooler and began passing out beers and sodas. He tossed a beer to Scott.
"Here, Daniels. Looks like you need some cooling off," he joked.
"Yeah, thanks," Scott replied with a laugh.
Beer fizzed over the top of the can as he popped it open. Jessica squirmed away, giggling, as the icy froth hit her stomach. She could only imagine the look of disapproval Elizabeth would give her if she could see this. But then, Scott was twenty-one, so technically no one was doing anything wrong.
"You want one?" Scott asked Jessica as his friend held out another beer.
"No thanks," Jessica said casually. She pushed herself up off the towel and slapped her hands together to dust them off. "I think I'm going to go get my feet wet."
"Your call," Scott said with a shrug before taking another swig of beer.
Slightly irritated that he hadn't offered to come along, Jessica turned and sauntered off toward the
water. She could feel his eyes on her as she went, so she made sure she was standing up straight and put an extra swing in her hips. When she reached the water's edge, she ran her fingers into her hair, holding it away from her face for a moment and arching her back in a stretch, before letting it tumble down. If there was one thing Jessica knew, it was how to captivate a guy.
She took a deep breath and looked across the peaceful lake at the sailboats cutting their way through the water. Before long, voices carried to her from Scott's little klatch of friends.
"You sure like 'em young, bro."
"That girl is all tease, man. Why bother?"
"I like my women experienced, thanks."
Jessica's face burned with humiliation. She dug her toes into the wet sand and frowned. So her careful act hadn't fooled them after all. They thought she was just a baby. And Scott hadn't even defended her. Well, they had no idea who they were dealing with. Jessica knew from experience that she could twist any guy around her little finger if she wanted to. Scooping up a handful of mud and pebbles, she strolled back to her towel.
"Oh, Scott?"
Smiling sweetly, she held out her fist. Scott looked up at her with a smirk and Jessica opened her hand, dribbling ice-cold mud across his perfect chest.
"What the-?" He jumped up and his friends laughed. "You little-"
Smiling, Scott grabbed for her arm, but Jessica backed away with a shriek and ran down the beach. Scott gave chase and Jessica hit the shallows, splashing him as she ran.
"Can't get away from me that easily," he said as he finally caught up with her. He grabbed her in his arms, lifting her off her feet, and carried her back to the dry sand. Jessica pounded his back, laughing in protest.
"Scott! Put me down! Where are you taking me?" she squealed happily. She glanced back at his friends, who were now yards away, and smiled in satisfaction, proud of herself for separating him from the herd.
"You'll see." Scott carried her up the beach with ease. He finally lowered her to the ground when they reached the wooded boundary of the sand.
"Come on. Let's go for a walk. I know a place where we can be alone," he said, running the back of his fingers down her cheek and looking her in the eye. Something inside Jessica stirred, a mixture of excitement and nervousness. "Alone?" she repeated.
Scott lowered his hand and entwined his fingers with hers. "Yeah. Let's ditch these losers. They're about to get high anyway, and I'm so not interested."
Jessica glanced at his friends again. They were gathered in a circle, laughing and chatting. She suddenly felt gratified that Scott wanted to be with her more than with them. And that he was no follower-that he wasn't going to smoke just because his friends were. She squeezed his fingers.
"Alone sounds good."
Scott smiled and led her to a path that cut into the woods. It was strewn with pine needles that tickled her bare feet as they walked. It was peaceful and still under the trees, the waning sun popping through here and there, dancing across their path. Jessica couldn't have imagined a more romantic setting.
"I'm glad you came up here with me today," Scott said, releasing her hand so that he could hook his arm over her shoulders. "You're definitely not like other high school girls."
"Thanks," she replied, happy that someone around there had noticed. She stepped over a fallen log and looked around. "How far are we going?"
"It's just a little farther," Scott replied.
A few minutes later, the sun had dipped so low the light was almost completely gone. Jessica shivered in her bikini. This was turning into more of a hike than a walk. Then, just as she was about to suggest that they go back and get some clothing, a clearing appeared, with a broken-down old hunting cottage in the center.
"Here we are," Scott announced, moving forward.
Jessica hesitated, wrapping her arms around herself. The cottage's roof was half collapsed and it looked dank and dirty. This was not at all romantic.
"Scott? I'm getting cold," she said. "Maybe we should just go back."
Scott walked over and got behind her, wrapping his arms around her. "There. That's warmer, isn't
it?" he said in her ear, sending another pleasant shiver down her spine.
"Definitely."
"Good." Using his knees, Scott nudged her legs forward, and they walked, wrapped together, to the door of the cottage. He released her and pushed the door open with a creek. "This place has been deserted forever. My brother and I found it when we were kids and we used to play explorer."
Jessica smiled at the thought of Scott as a kid messing around out there with his brother. She slipped by him into the house. The whole place was one dingy room, with a corroding kitchen off to the side and an old musty couch in the center. A table with a broken leg sat in front of the couch, and there were crushed beer cans and fast-food bags everywhere, giving the house a sour smell. Clearly Scott was not the only person who had discovered this place.
"Come here," he said, hooking his finger into her bikini bottom again and pulling her to him.
Jessica's heart jumped as he lowered his lips to hers. At first the kiss was sweet and searching, but before long it grew urgent. Scott wrapped his hand
around the nape of her neck and yanked her into him as if he wanted to swallow her whole. Jessica pulled back to get a breath and her heel caught on a crooked floorboard. Just like that, she found herself tipping backward and sprawling onto the dusty couch.
"I like the way you think," Scott said, smiling wolfishly.
Alarmed, Jessica realized how she must have looked. She closed her legs and tried to sit up, but Scott was on top of her before she could move.
"Scott, no. I-"
But her words were lost as he kissed her savagely, pinning her shoulders back with his hands as she tried to squirm away.
Okay. Okay. I can handle this, Jessica thought. She kissed him back, trying to regain some semblance of control, but when she tried to sit up again, Scott kept her pinned to the couch. Jessica's heart started to pound with fear. The muscles she had admired at the beach felt menacing now. How was she going to get away from him?
Maybe somebody will walk in, she thought. Maybe they're looking for us.
But as Scott's hands reached for her bikini straps, she knew it was hopeless. Aubrey had tried to warn her, but it wasn't as if she or anyone else on the beach truly cared what happened to Jessica. No one-was coming to her rescue, and Scott was clearly not going to take no for an answer from a girl who had willingly followed him right into the lion's den.
***
"Scott! Stop it !" Jessica demanded, wrenching her mouth free by turning her head to the side. He immediately moved his lips to her neck as she pushed against the solid wall of his chest with all her strength. "I mean it! Get off me!"
"Oh, you mean it, huh?" Scott said with a mocking laugh. "Please. All that posing and teasing on the beach... leading me on. I thought you meant that."
He tugged at her bikini straps and Jessica's heart stopped. This had to end. Now. With both his
hands occupied, she was able to twist her arms free and shove him in the side, tipping him clear off the couch. His head slammed against the broken table and he winced in pain, giving Jessica enough time to scramble off the couch and get behind it.
Now what? she wondered, glancing at the door as she readjusted her bathing suit. Both the couch and Scott sat between her and freedom. Should she make a run for it? It was pitch-black outside now. There was no way she could make it back to the beach without him to guide her. As much as the thought sickened her, she was going to have to make nice.
"You're insane, you know that?" Scott spat, rubbing his head as he stood.
"Sorry," Jessica said with a sweet smile and an innocent shrug. "Guess I don't know my own strength."
"Whatever. The guys were right," Scott said, spitting on the floor like some hillbilly. "You're nothing but a tease."
"Come on, Scott," Jessica said, wheedling. She felt a bit more confident now that she had put some space between them. "You know I like you,
but we can't stay out here all night, It's already dark and I have to be home soon."
Scott snorted derisively. "Who said you were going home tonight?"
Jessica's heart skipped a nervous beat. She reached up to toy with the gold lavaliere that always hung around her neck. "What?"
"This party's an all-nighter, kid," he said, leaning back against the rickety half wall between the kitchen and the living space. He touched his head again and winced. "I thought you knew that."
Jessica stiffened, all pretense of sweetness dropping abruptly. Scott had never mentioned staying out all night. Her parents were going to kill her if she didn't get home. She had school the next day. Hello? Hadn't Scott thought of any of that? Clearly not. Clearly he hadn't thought of her beyond whatever he had wanted to do with her in this skeezy little cottage. Tears stung Jessica's eyes as her own stupidity sank in, but she refused to give him the satisfaction of seeing her cry.
This is all Elizabeth's fault, she thought suddenly. She could have talked me out of this if she'd really tried.
"I have to get home," Jessica said firmly, using
her indignation to keep the tears in check. "If you don't take me home, I'll tell my parents you tried to... to-"
A lump rose in her throat as she glanced at the couch, and she found she couldn't finish the sentence.
"Go ahead," Scott said with a laugh. "Tell them how you lied to them so you could come up here with me. Then tell them how we just happened to end up in an empty cottage in the middle of the woods practically naked. What are you going to do, tell them I knocked you out and dragged you here by your hair? I don't think your parents are that stupid."
Jessica's cheeks burned with rage and humiliation. He was right, of course. But she wasn't about to admit that.
"Liz was right about you," she said through her teeth. "You are nothing but a pretty face."
Scott's eyebrows shot up. "Liz thinks I'm pretty, huh? Maybe I brought the wrong twin to the party." He smirked as if he knew how hard that insult would hit, then turned toward the door. "Later, babe."
"Wait! Where are you going?" Jessica asked. "You can't just leave me here."
"Huh, funny. I think that's exactly what I can do," he said.
He was out the door in a flash. Heart pounding with fear, Jessica started after him, but her foot caught on that same loose board and she flew forward, her knees slamming into the splintery floor. The tears shot forth now, streaming down her face at the pain. She rolled over onto her butt and dusted off her hands. There was a huge scrape on her left knee, dripping blood down her shin.
"Scott!" she screamed, not caring how scared or childish she sounded now. Maybe he was waiting right outside the door. Maybe he was just messing with her. She struggled to her feet and whipped the door open. All that greeted her was blackness. Scott was already gone.
***
Okay, do not panic, Jessica thought, hugging her arms against a cool breeze. You're only half naked, barefoot, and alone in the middle of the woods with no flashlight and no sign of a path. It's not that big a deal.
Her bottom lip started to tremble as she heard a twig crack, and she looked wildly around at the trees. She was going to die out there. She was going to freeze to death or get eaten by a bear or get attacked by some crazed, sick lunatic escaped from a local mental hospital.
God, I really have to stop watching horror movies, she thought.
Another snap of a twig and Jessica was on the move. She couldn't just stay there. It would take Elizabeth at least until morning to figure out that she hadn't come home, and then another few hours to crack and tell her parents that Jessica had lied and gone to the lake. It could be twenty-four hours before anyone even came looking for her, and when they did, how were they supposed to find this place in the middle of nowhere? No. She was going to have to be strong and find her way back to the beach. Back to her bag and her clothes and her cell phone.
Taking a deep breath, Jessica set about looking for the path she and Scott had followed up to the cottage, but it was nowhere in sight. Why did all the trees have to look so maddeningly alike? How did Scott expect her to find her way out of this maze?
I hope he stumbles into a bear trap, Jessica thought, shoving aside some tree branches as she delved into the woods. He deserves it, after he kidnapped me and brought me up here.
There was a distinct rustling in the bushes behind her, and Jessica's heart went into panic mode. Tingling with goose bumps, she thrashed her way through the underbrush with new determination, ignoring the twigs that scratched her bare legs and arms. Soon she had even forgotten that she was cold.
Why did I drop out of the Girl Scouts? she chided herself as she trained her eyes on the ground, looking for a path. Maybe if she'd stuck with it, she would know how to find her way out of a situation like this. But no. She had told Liz that the Girl Scouts was for goody-goodies, and Elizabeth had shrugged, just letting Jessica walk away. Why hadn't Liz tried to convince her to stay? She would have stayed in the Scouts if her sister had really wanted her to. The more Jessica thought about it, the more she realized Elizabeth really was to blame for all of this.
Finally, Jessica located what appeared to be a
narrow dirt path. Things were looking up. She strode determinedly along the path, already thinking ahead to the conversation she would soon be having with Liz. No doubt Liz would give her the old "I told you so" line, but Jessica had the perfect answers. It was Elizabeth's fault that she was even out there. Sisters were supposed to protect each other. Elizabeth should have insisted that Jessica stay home. Therefore, it was Liz's responsibility to sneak out of the house and drive up there to get her. That was that.
After what seemed like hours, Jessica finally found Lance's cabin-the place she had thought they were using as a lunch spot and for its bathroom, but which had apparently been intended as the venue for a sleepover party. She started up the front steps.
"Well, well. Look who finally found her way back."
Scott emerged from the doorway, beer in hand. If the redness in his eyes was any indication, he was flaming drunk. Jessica shot him a look of death and shoved by him right into the house. She limped into the bathroom and took a look at her injured
leg. It was a mess of blood and dirt and it stung like mad. Holding back tears, she cleaned up the mess and several other scratches on her arms. There were no Band-Aids in the cabinet, so she grabbed a paper towel, tore off a corner, and stuck it over the wound, where the blood held it in place. Back in the living room, Scott watched her with an amused expression, sipping his beer as she limped along and searched the room for her bag.
"Where's my stuff?" she asked finally.
"Oh, right." Scott went to the trash can and pulled out her quilted bag, which was soaking wet and covered in sand and muck. "Guys got a little out of hand. Sorry."
"They threw my bag in the lake?" She grabbed the impossibly heavy bag from his hand. Digging through it, she found that the minidress she had worn for the drive up and the jeans and shirt she had brought in case it got cold were soaked through. Plus her makeup bag and everything in it were ruined. She bit her lip, trying not to think about the hundreds of dollars' worth of stuff she'd just lost. All that mattered was her phone. If her phone was okay...
She finally dug it out and let the bag hit the floor
with a wet smack. Hands trembling, she attempted to turn the phone on but got nothing but a blank screen.
"Ugh!" Jessica groaned in frustration. "You owe me a new phone!" she shrieked at Scott.
"Not my fault you left your stuff unattended," Scott replied, laughing, as he crushed his beer can and flung it toward the sink.
"Where's your cell?" Jessica demanded.
"I don't know," Scott said, holding his arms out and leering at her. "Why don't you frisk me?"
Jessica eyed him, appalled. "You're a psycho, you know that? You can't keep me hostage here. I have to get home!"
"I have to get home!" Scott mimicked in a high-pitched tone, getting right in her face. Jessica pulled back, disgusted by his sour breath. She couldn't believe she had thought that this guy was sophisticated and too good for games. Clearly he was more immature than any of the guys in her class. "Good luck, Jess," he said. "Everyone else already went to bed, and this place doesn't have a landline. Hate to tell you this, but you're stuck here until the morning."
He burped and popped open another can of
beer. Jessica shoved her hands into her hair and considered her options. Even if she tortured Scott until he agreed to take her home, he was too drunk to drive now-especially on the winding lake roads. But there were six other people in this house. One of them had to have a cell.
Jessica whirled on her heel, tromped down the hallway, and banged on the first door. Loud music pounded from inside. So loud she was sure that whoever was in there couldn't hear her. She tried the door, but it was locked. Heart pounding, she went to the second door, but before she even lifted her hand, she heard the noises coming from inside. Definitely not the kind of thing she wanted to walk in on. Feeling desperate, Jessica tried the third door, but she could smell the sweet stench of pot smoke coming from inside. It was no use. Everyone there was either drunk or stoned. No one was going to help her.
"Give it up, Jess," Scott said from the end of the hall. "I suggest you make yourself comfortable on the couch."
Jessica narrowed her eyes at him, a new thought occurring to her. "Fine," she said, walking toward him. "But I'm freezing to death in this bathing suit.
I think I left my sweater in your car. Where are the keys?"
"Nice try," Scott said with a snort. "No one drives my car but me. But I like your determination. We're a lot alike."
Jessica screwed her face up in disgust. "I'm nothing like you," she said, stepping past him.
Feeling trapped, she looked frantically around the living room one more time, hoping to find a stray phone or a set of keys, but there was nothing but beer cans and discarded clothing. Not caring whose it was, Jessica yanked an oversized SVU sweatshirt from a chair and pulled it on over her head, then grabbed the blanket from the back of the couch and threw it over her legs as she sat on the musty cushions. She stared straight ahead, hugging her knees tightly under her chin so that Scott wouldn't get any ideas.
"You know, I do have a full bed in the last bedroom...," Scott said suggestively. "I bet you'd be a lot more comfortable in there if you want to join me."
"I'd rather eat dirt," Jessica said, gripping herself even more tightly. Scott laughed and turned out the light as he
staggered down the hall. "All right, then. See you in the morning. Or, more likely, afternoon, considering how wasted everyone is."
A second later, a door slammed and Jessica was finally, finally left alone. And finally able to let herself cry.
***
elizabeth groaned when her alarm clock started beeping on Monday morning. She switched it off and rolled onto her stomach, bunching her pillow up under her cheek.
Just a few more minutes, she thought with a yawn.
She had been having the most perfect dream. She had been alone in the darkroom at school, developing pictures of a beautiful lake, when Todd had come up behind her and slipped his arms around her waist. Elizabeth had turned and he had pulled her into this amazing kiss....
A door slammed somewhere in the house and Elizabeth's eyes popped open. Half an hour had passed. Heart in her throat, she sat up straight in bed and flung the covers aside. She couldn't believe she had let herself doze off again without hitting the Snooze button. What was wrong with her? She was never this irresponsible.
"Why am I so tired?" she asked herself, rubbing her groggy eyes.
Then she remembered. She had stayed up late studying for the tour guide test. And when she had finally finished, she had sat up in bed even later, wondering where the heck her sister was.
Jessica! Elizabeth thought, suddenly wide awake. She sprinted through the bathroom joining her room to her sister's, hoping to find Jessica snoozing safely in her bed. She threw the door open and froze. Jessica's bed was unmade, as always, but clearly had not been slept in. There were clothes strewn on and under the sheets and pillows. The room was still and cold.
Slowly, Elizabeth walked into the room and lowered herself onto the mattress, her stomach clenching in fear. What if something had happened to
Jessica? What if she and Scott had gotten into an accident or something? She remembered the way Scott had peeled out of the Casa parking lot in his Viper the week before. What if he'd peeled out right into a tree this time?
Elizabeth took a deep breath and reasoned with herself. If Jess had been in an accident, they would have heard by now. And this was, after all, Jessica. It was far more likely that she had merely decided she was having too good a time to come home. It wouldn't be the first time. Jessica was selfish enough to forget all about Elizabeth and the trouble they would both be in when their parents found out that they had lied. Selfish enough to not even think about the fact that people would be worried about her.
She never even studied for the test, Elizabeth thought, starting to fume. We've only been talking about this forever, and now suddenly, just because some stupid guy walked into her life, she doesn't care at all.
Irritated, Elizabeth got up and went back into the bathroom, slamming her sister's door behind her. She piled her hair atop her head-no time to wash it-and got in the shower, where she used her
anti-Jessica adrenaline rush to scrub herself down in record time.
That's it. She's going to have to get herself out of this one. I am not covering for her, Elizabeth thought determinedly as she brushed her teeth. Not this time.
"You girls had better hurry up or you'll be late for school!" Alice Wakefield shouted up the stairs.
Elizabeth froze with her toothbrush jutting from her mouth, her heart dropping at the sound of her mother's cheerful voice. She stared at herself in the mirror. Her parents were going to freak. They were going to be so mad and so scared when they realized Jessica had never come home. And they were going to blame Elizabeth as well. After all, when they had come home from their movie the night before and assumed Jessica was in her room, Elizabeth hadn't told them any different. It had been after ten o'clock on a Sunday night. Any normal sister would have told her parents so that they could deal with the situation. But Elizabeth? Nah. She had kept her mouth shut so that Jessica wouldn't get in trouble, and had just prayed that she would sneak in the back door soon.
That was how she always sucked herself into covering for Jess. Wanting to protect not just Jessica,
but also her parents. And if she was really honest, wanting to protect herself, too.
"That would be my superhero name," Elizabeth muttered wryly as she wiped her mouth with a towel. "The Clueless Protector."
"Liz! Jessica!" her mother shouted.
"Coming!" Elizabeth shouted back.
She slipped into a pair of old jeans worn to velvety softness and yanked a long-sleeved T-shirt over her head. Quickly she retightened her pony-tail and shoved her feet into a pair of laceless sneakers. The moment she grabbed her book bag, her cell phone trilled.
Elizabeth's heart leapt as she groped in the bag for her phone. The number on the screen was unrecognizable. Crap. Maybe Jessica was in some kind of trouble.
"Hello?" Elizabeth cried into the phone.
"Liz! Omigod!" Jessica screeched.
Elizabeth clutched the phone and spoke through her teeth. "Jessica, where the hell are you? Mom is downstairs right now expecting us to come down for breakfast."
"She doesn't know I'm not there?" Jessica said hopefully.
If Elizabeth could have strangled her sister through the phone, she would have. "No. Not yet" she said pointedly.
"Oh, thank God. Liz, it is such a long story," Jessica said. "I basically had the worst night of my life. Please. Mom can't find out I didn't come home. This whole thing has been bad enough. I can't get grounded for it too."
"Jess, how do you expect me to--"
"Liz, please!" Jessica's voice wavered on the edge of tears. "You have no idea what I've been through."
"Well, then tell me," Elizabeth said.
"I can't. There's no time. And Beau doesn't even know I'm using her phone."
"Beau? Who's Beau?" Elizabeth asked.
"Liz! Focus! I'm hoping to get out of here soon, but you have to cover for me in the meantime," Jessica whispered.
Elizabeth hugged herself, clutching the fabric of her T-shirt at her side. As much as she hated it, she could feel herself caving. "Well, what about the test?" she asked.
"I can still make the test if you help me," Jessica said.
"Jessica, what do you expect me to do?" Elizabeth whispered as the scent of pancakes wafted up from the kitchen. "I'm not a magician, you know. I can't be two people at once. Mom's going to figure it out when you don't come down for breakfast."
"You'll think of something. You always do," Jessica said confidently.
"Yeah. I always do," Elizabeth repeated flatly. And I always have to, she added silently.
"I'll make it up to you, Liz. I swear. Just help me out this one time and I swear I'll never ask you for another favor as long as I live," Jessica said, perfectly reading Elizabeth's fed-up tone. "Scout's honor."
"You dropped out of the Girl Scouts," Elizabeth pointed out.
"Yeah, well, you wouldn't know it considering the survival skills I displayed last night," Jessica said lightly.
Elizabeth's brows knit. "What? Jess, what exactly-"
"Oh, crap. I have to go," Jessica said quickly. "I'll see you at school. And thank you so much, Liz!" Then the line went dead. Elizabeth groaned and
shoved the phone back into her bag. Leave it to Jessica to thank her when she hadn't even said she would help.
God, what I wouldn't give to be an only child, Elizabeth thought. Although I'd keep Steven around. Steven's okay, she joked to herself. The worst infraction her older brother had ever committed was giving her the occasional noogie. So much better than asking her to lie to their parents.
"Girls!" Alice Wakefield's voice had taken on an impatient edge.
Elizabeth slung her bag over her shoulder and rushed to the top of the stairs, where she paused. What was she going to tell her mother? It wasn't like she would believe that Jessica had left the house early. Jess never got out of bed until she absolutely had to, and if by some miracle she had gotten up and left, she certainly would have taken the Jeep the twins shared.
Okay, okay, what would Jessica do? Elizabeth thought. It was an old trick she had used since childhood on those rare occasions when she needed to find a quick way out of a sticky situation: She imagined she was Jessica, Figured out what her
devious twin would do if she and her "anything goes" attitude wound up in the same scenario.
Suddenly, Elizabeth knew exactly what she had to do. The perfect Jessica-inspired plan. The thought made her dizzy with dread, but she could see no other way out. Taking a deep breath, she started slowly down the stairs.
***
"Where's Jessica?" Alice Wakefield slid a stack of pancakes onto a plate and handed it to Elizabeth as she entered the kitchen.
"Um, she'll be down in a minute," Elizabeth said, avoiding her mother's gaze. "She's having wardrobe issues. What else is new?" she joked. Her laugh sounded fake even to her, so she cut it off abruptly.
"Well, she'd better hurry if she wants to eat. I have to start getting ready for work in a few minutes," her mother said with a sigh, returning to the griddle.
Elizabeth sat silently at the kitchen table, going over her plan in her mind as her mother wiped down the counter and put away the pancake mix. As always, her mother had gotten up early to go jogging, and she was still wearing her running shorts and sneakers. Her honey blond hair was caught up in a ponytail, adding a youthfulness to her tan, slender appearance. She hummed as she cleaned up, totally oblivious to the fact that one daughter was scheming against her while the other was God knew where. Elizabeth almost felt sorry for her.
"Are you okay? You seem quiet," her mother said, glancing over the butcher block. "You're worried about that test, aren't you? I know how much this means to you girls."
It means a lot to one of us, at least, Elizabeth thought.
She forced down a forkful of pancakes and syrup, nudging it along with a generous swallow of orange juice. Normally pancakes were her favorite breakfast, and a rare treat on mornings when her mother had a bit of extra time, but that morning she wasn't remotely hungry. Her stomach felt as if it had been french-braided.
"I think I'm ready," Elizabeth mumbled. "The questions on the practice test weren't that hard; there are just a lot of them. There's a lot to remember."
"When I was your age, I wanted to be a camp counselor," her mother mused. "About twenty kids applied, and they only needed five, so we took a test and then they interviewed us."
"Did you get the job?" Elizabeth asked, trying to be interested even as she was planning her next move. She took another bite of her pancakes.
Her mother chuckled. "I failed the test miserably, but I had babysat for the daughter of the woman who was interviewing us. She liked me so much she gave me the job anyway."
Elizabeth forced a smile through her discomfort.
"I'll bet you were great at it."
"I'm not sure how great I was, but it was definitely fun, especially since I was paired up with my best friend at the time," her mother replied. "I'm so glad you and Jess decided to do this. It's nice you'll be able to work together."
"Yeah. If we both pass," Elizabeth muttered.
"I am a bit worried about your sister. She didn't
stay up too late studying, did she? Is that why she slept so late?"
Elizabeth choked on a mouthful of pancakes she was swallowing. She doubled over the table in a fit of coughing that brought her mother scurrying to pound on her back.
"Are you okay?" her mother asked.
"Fine," Elizabeth said, still choking. She sat up and took a few deep breaths, coughing slightly.
"Sorry."
Her mother sighed in relief. "I think you just gave me a few new gray hairs," she joked, looking up at her bangs.
Elizabeth smiled. There wasn't a single gray hair among her mother's tawny locks.
"Sorry, Mom. I guess I'm just in kind of a hurry."
She wasn't really sorry, though. At least she had momentarily distracted her mother from the subject of Jessica's whereabouts. Her mother smiled and shook her head, smoothing a stray wisp of hair back toward her ponytail.
"You two used to have such fights back when you were in high chairs; you would work yourselves up and get food lodged in your throat all the time,"
she said, rolling her eyes. "Jessica would start by throwing pieces of her food at you and you'd usually wind up dumping your cup of milk over her head. You always got the last word that way, Liz."
Yeah. Not anymore, Elizabeth thought bitterly. Now Jessica always wins.
Her mother frowned up at the ceiling. "What is taking her so long? She only has four thousand tons of clothes. I'm sure she can find something acceptable for a Monday at school."
"Well, you know Jess. Every week is Fashion Week." Elizabeth shoveled the last of her breakfast into her mouth with lightning speed. "Thanks for the pancakes, Mom, but I have to go. Todd's picking me up and I told him I'd meet him outside," she lied.
"What about your sister?" her mom asked as Elizabeth was heading out the back door.
"Tell her she can take the Jeep!" Elizabeth called back.
"Okay. Well, good luck on the test, hon!" her mother shouted after her. "I know you don't need it, but good luck anyway."
"Thanks!"
Actually, I'm going to need all the luck I can get, she thought as she ducked outside, slamming the door behind her. She had made it past stage one, but her mission was far from over. The hardest part was still to come. Could she do it? Could she fool her own mother into thinking she was Jessica? She was certain Jessica would have no trouble pulling off the deception--she'd done it often enough in the past. But Jessica was a natural actress, while Elizabeth hated lying so much it practically gave her hives. This was going to be interesting.
Silently cursing her twin, Elizabeth rushed to the driveway and dropped her book bag into the open backseat of the Jeep. Then she doubled back around the side of the house, crouching down as she passed the kitchen window so that her mother wouldn't see her. Carefully, she let herself in through the front door, removing her sneakers as she did so.
She could hear her mother moving around at the back of the house. If her mom came out to the stairs to shout at Jessica again, she would find the twin who had just left standing in the foyer, clutching her shoes. The visual was almost amusing.
Holding her breath, Elizabeth sprinted up the stairs on her tiptoes and slipped into Jessica's room. She tore the rubber band out of her hair and shook her ponytail out, then ripped her clothes off and yanked one of Jessica's favorite sundresses from the closet. She stepped into it and zipped it up while shoving her feet into a random pair of sandals at the same time. Then, panting for breath, she spritzed on some of Jessica's perfume, swiped on some lipstick and blush, and fastened a pair of dangling earrings in her ears. One glance in the mirror told her she'd done the best she could. She was ready to greet the world as Jessica Wakefield.
"I am so going to kick your butt for this, Jessica," she told her own reflection. "You'd better watch your back."
Fortunately, her mother was busy washing Elizabeth's dishes and she barely glanced up as Elizabeth swooped into the kitchen and gave her a swift, perfumed peck on the cheek.
"Sorry I took so long, Mom," Elizabeth said in her sister's carefree voice, settling into Jessica's usual chair. "It took me forever to find this dress."
"Well, maybe if you cleaned your room once in a while...," her mother said, placing a stack of pancakes in front of her.
Elizabeth groaned inwardly. She was already so full she felt like she could bust out of Jessica's tight outfit. For a moment she considered telling her mother she wasn't hungry, but she knew better. Her mother never let her or her sister out of the house without eating something.
"Forgive me, stomach, for what I'm about to do to you," she muttered under her breath, courageously spearing a generous forkful. She would have to make a good show of eating to keep her mother from getting suspicious. Unfortunately, pancakes happened to be Jessica's favorite breakfast as well.
Mrs. Wakefield spoke over her shoulder as she placed the griddle in the sink. "Liz went to school with Todd. She said you should take the Jeep."
"Okay," Elizabeth replied with an airy wave of her hand. She had to think of something to say. Jessica was pretty talkative in the morning. And besides, she didn't want to give her mother an opening to ask about Jessica's day with Cara and her
family. Suddenly, she recalled a conversation she had overheard between her mother and Jessica late last week. "Oh, by the way, did you get a chance to look at that skirt I was telling you about? The one in the window at Abercrombie?"
Her mother sighed. "Honestly, Jess, you need a new skirt like I need triplets. If you ever bothered to wash and iron the ones at the bottom of your closet, you could probably double your wardrobe."
Elizabeth rolled her eyes at the thought of the laundry--the twins' responsibility ever since their mother had gone back to work a few years before. Both she and Jessica hated the chore and were constantly trying to find ways to foist it off on each other. Maybe Elizabeth could get Jessica to take over the laundry duties for a couple of weeks as payback for this charade.
Remembering that she was supposed to be channeling her sister, Elizabeth was about to plead for the skirt again when she was struck by a sudden bolt of inspiration. The corners of her mouth lifted in a mischievous smile. If she was going to have to go through all this, she might as well get something out of it.
"I know. I was actually thinking you should get it
for Liz," she suggested sweetly. "She never asks for anything and it's totally her style."
"And of course if she had it, you could borrow it," her mother teased.
"Mom! I can't believe you'd think I could be that selfish!" Elizabeth gasped, in true Jessica denial mode.
Her mother smiled. "You know what, you're absolutely right. Elizabeth doesn't ask for new clothes very often. You could take a lesson or two from her in that department. And as for the skirt, I'll have to check it out first to make sure it is Liz's style, as you say."
"Oh, please. I love Abercrombie!" Elizabeth protested.
She realized her mistake the second it was out of her mouth, and turned beet red.
"I know yo u do, but we're talking about Elizabeth here," her mother replied with a wry smile.
"Right. I know. Right." Elizabeth shoved away from the table and grabbed Jessica's messenger bag, annoyed that she had almost slipped up so badly.
"I better go. Thanks for breakfast."
She was halfway out the door when her mother called after her. "Oh Jess ! "
Elizabeth froze, certain from her mother's tone that she'd given herself away with some minor detail she had overlooked in making her hasty transformation. She was sure her mother could hear her heart hammering.
"Yeah?" she asked uncertainly.
"I just wanted to wish you good luck on the test," her mother said with a smile.
"Thanks," Elizabeth said, relieved. "Bye, Mom!"
She was out the door in a flash and fled down the driveway as if she were being chased. Her breathing didn't return to normal until she and the Jeep were halfway down the block. She stopped at the stop sign at the end of Calico Drive and wiped her sweaty palms on her sister's dress.
"I pulled it off," she told herself. But instead of feeling triumphant, she just felt guilty and nauseated. She hated deceiving her mother, and her stomach was so full she could have body-doubled for the Goodyear blimp. And what had possessed her to ask for that skirt? Jessica's selfishness must have really taken over at that moment.
Maybe she was a better actress than she thought. Too bad that made her anything but proud.
***
The sweet, clean scent of freshly mown grass greeted Elizabeth as she trudged up the sloping front lawn of Sweet Valley High. It was a perfect fall day. A cloudless blue sky spanned the roof of the sprawling stucco school building, and the sun gleamed down on the flowers and palms that lined the walks. Normally, Elizabeth would have taken a deep breath and smiled, appreciating the beauty that surrounded her, but today, she was not in the mood. She spotted Enid, who was on her way through the front door, and quickened her step.
"Enid! Wait up!" Elizabeth called.
Enid glanced over her shoulder at Elizabeth and her face turned to stone. She turned around and slipped into the school.
What the ... ?
Elizabeth jogged to catch up-not an easy feat in Jessica's high-heeled sandals-and was out of breath by the time she found her best friend at her locker.
"Why didn't you wait?" she gasped.
Enid barely looked at her. "What do you want, Jessica?" she asked coolly.
Elizabeth blinked. She looked down at her clothes. For a moment she had forgotten her game of dress up. "Enid, it's me, Liz."
Rolling her eyes, Enid looked at her again, but this time she did a double take. "Omigod, Liz! I'm so sorry. Why did I think you were..." Her eyes trailed down Elizabeth's too-sexy-for-a-school-day outfit. "Wait a minute. What are you doing in Jessica's clothes?"
Elizabeth sighed. "It's a long story."
"I'll bet," Enid said with a smirk as she pulled out her textbooks. She was dressed as conservatively as ever in a blue cotton cable-knit sweater and khaki shorts. "Give me the short version."
"Basically she never came home last night and then called me this morning and begged me to cover for her," Elizabeth said, leaning back against the cool metal lockers.
"Why am I not surprised?" Enid asked, shaking her head.
"Actually, it's not like that," Elizabeth replied. Somehow, her irritation with her sister always withered and died in the face of other people's judgment of Jessica. No matter what the situation, it was her knee-jerk reaction to come to her sister's defense. "She said she had the worst night of her life. I don't even know where she is right now. I hope she's okay."
Enid let out a sigh and slammed her locker.
"Look, Liz, whatever else Jessica is, she's always been very... self-sufficient," she said. "I know those parties can get out of control and everything, but she can take care of herself. At least she didn't call you from a hospital or a police station or something." Enid paused. "She didn't, right?"
"No! No," Elizabeth said quickly, though she wasn't sure where Jessica had been calling from. "I mean, she even said she'd see me here today. She must be getting a ride to school from Scott or
something. I just hope she's not too late. We have that tour guide test this morning. What if she misses it?"
"Well, then it's her loss," Enid said, moving down the hall.
Elizabeth fell into step with her. "It's just... we always planned on being guides together," she said. "It wouldn't be the same without her. So technically, it'll be my loss too."
"Don't worry. I'm sure she'll show up," Enid said, though she sounded anything but sure.
"When is the test, anyway?"
"I'm taking mine right after homeroom, but Jessica's isn't scheduled until second period," Elizabeth replied, checking her watch. She realized with a start that she had forgotten to take it off when she had morphed into Jessica. It was a good thing her mother hadn't noticed that detail. It would have been a dead giveaway. Jessica didn't even own a watch, and there was a long-standing family joke that she had been born four minutes after Elizabeth because she couldn't bother to be on time.
"So, that's an hour away," Enid told her, pausing
in front of her homeroom and pulling out her dogeared copy of Macbeth. "She's got plenty of time."
"I guess...," Elizabeth said. In reality, she wasn't too confident in Jessica's ability to show up on time for anything. Their birthday wasn't the only time she had been late.
"If the test is so important to her, she'll find a way to get here," Enid said, glancing over her shoulder into her classroom. "I'd better get in there. I have to catch up on the English reading before first period. Good luck on the test, Liz."
"Thanks," Elizabeth said with a wan smile.
Enid ducked into her classroom and Elizabeth walked to the end of the junior hallway, keeping an eye out for a flash of familiar blond hair. She stopped a few of her friends to ask if they had seen Jessica, and several people did a double take, thinking she was Jessica, but no one had seen her twin. Before long, Elizabeth glimpsed Bruce Patman sauntering toward her, his dark hair falling perfectly over his piercing blue eyes. She turned her back on him, but it didn't thwart him for a second.
"What's up, Wakefield?" he said, getting in front of her and leaning one shoulder against the wall.
He flashed his infamous smile-the one that had always made Jessica weak in the knees but only made Elizabeth want to hurl. "Nice dress," he said, his eyes pawing all over her. "Why did we ever break up?"
Elizabeth smirked. So Bruce thought she was Jessica too. "Uh, because you're a total loser?" she shot back.
Brace's face fell and for once in his life he was at a loss for words. For the first time that day, Elizabeth didn't mind playing her twin's double. A short distance down the hallway, she spotted Todd leaning casually back against his locker as he spoke to Will Chase. Liz breezed by Bruce to join them.
"Hey!" Elizabeth said cheerily as she reached Todd's side.
He blinked down at her. "Liz?"
Elizabeth smiled. "Yeah, it's me."
Todd straightened up and glanced past her at the now retreating Bruce. "Wait, so Bruce Patman was just checking you out like you were his own personal property?"
"Um, I think that's my cue," Will said, combing his fingers through his long blond hair.
"Later, dudes."
"Later!" Todd called after him as he loped away. Todd glanced at Elizabeth, his brown eyes annoyed. "I swear, one of these days I'm going to annihilate that jackass."
"Who? Will?" Elizabeth asked distractedly.
"No. Bruce," Todd said. He laced his fingers through Elizabeth's and squeezed. "What were you two talking about, anyway?"
"Oh, nothing. He thought I was Jessica," she said with a wave of her free hand. "So I called him a loser and walked away."
"Nice," Todd said with a grin. "There is something very Jessica about you today. What's with the evil twin costume?"
Elizabeth saw a flash of blond from the corner of her eye and glanced past Todd down the hall, but it wasn't Jessica. Just one of the many other girls who attended SVH.
"Hello? Liz! Are you in there?" Todd asked, waving a hand in front of her face. "What's with you today? Did you get hit over the head or something?"
Elizabeth sighed, thinking of the anvil-to-the-head that was Jessica Wakefield. "You could say that, I guess."
Todd's brows knit. "Okay. Be mysterious," he said with a shrug. He started down the hall toward their homeroom, swinging their hands between them. "I don't care. I am in too good a mood to care about you playing dress-up in your sister's closet."
"Really? And what's this good mood all about?" Elizabeth asked, forgetting about Jessica for the moment.
"I finally have enough money to buy that Ducati I've had my eye on," Todd said excitedly. "I can't wait. I've wanted a motorcycle my entire life and it's finally going to happen."
Elizabeth swallowed a sudden lump in her throat. "That's... great."
"And I can't wait to take my girl for a ride," Todd said in a sexy voice as he leaned down for a quick kiss.
Elizabeth attempted to smile, but it wasn't easy. Her parents had absolutely forbidden her ever to ride on a motorcycle. It was one of their strictest rules. What was she going to tell Todd when he swung by her house to pick her up for their first ride?
Okay, he doesn't even have the thing yet , she thought.
No point in worrying about it now. She already had enough on her mind.
"Hey. Are you sure you're okay?" Todd asked, concern in his voice as they walked into homeroom. "Is it the test? Because I'm sure you're going to do fine."
Elizabeth dropped into her usual chair next to Todd and turned to face him. "It's not the test. It's Jessica."
She quickly spilled out the entire story, whispering through the morning announcements, and all the while, her eyes kept darting to the door as she hoped that Jessica would breeze inside. By the time she was done, Todd had grown utterly still and silent and Jessica still hadn't arrived. Elizabeth could tell by the way Todd was avoiding her gaze that he was annoyed.
Todd blew out a sigh. "You really shouldn't let Jessica get away with so much, Liz," he said. "I hate the way she uses you."
"I know. I hate it too," Elizabeth replied, relieved that he wasn't going to harp on the fact that she had semi-lied to him. "But she is my sister. I just have this uncontrollable urge to help her."
Todd smiled as the bell rang to end homeroom.
"You're such a pushover."
"Yeah. That's me," Elizabeth said, slinging her book bag over her shoulder. "The Clueless Protector Pushover."
"Huh?" Todd asked.
Liz rolled her eyes. "Nothing."
Todd walked Elizabeth to a classroom on the second floor where she was taking her test, and paused outside the room.
"Okay, the way I see it, there's no real harm done so far," Todd said, holding her hand. "She could show up any minute and all of this will be over."
"True," Elizabeth said with a nod.
"You've done everything you can, so now it's time to concentrate on you," Todd told her firmly.
"You have a test to take and . you want to do well. So quit thinking about Jessica and focus."
Elizabeth laughed. "Yes, Mr. Basketball Captain."
Todd grinned. "My pep talks are world renowned." He pushed her hair behind her shoulder and leaned down to kiss her lightly on the mouth. He smelled faintly of toothpaste and the spicy aftershave he used. The mixture of scents caused
her skin to tingle pleasantly. "For good luck," he said quietly.
Elizabeth blushed, her heart fluttering like mad.
"Thanks, Todd. You're right. There's nothing else I can do right now."
"No, thank you , Jessica," Todd said loudly, smacking his lips together with relish. "Even your sister doesn't kiss like that!"
Elizabeth whacked him on the arm and Todd ducked away.
"Good luck!" he shouted, backing down the hall.
Elizabeth shook her head as she walked into the classroom, but she was so flush with Todd's attention she had all but forgotten about Jessica. Smiling happily, her heart as light as air, she sailed through the test. A lot of the questions had been worded to be deliberately confusing, but Elizabeth had no trouble sorting them out. She was one of the first to hand her answer sheet in to Miss Bascombe, the teacher monitoring the first-period test. She spent the rest of the time rereading her English homework as everyone else scratched away with their pencils.
The bell finally rang and Elizabeth walked
outside, hoping to see Jessica waiting there to take her own test. Instead, she was greeted by Cara Walker, who swooped in out of nowhere and grabbed her arm.
"There you are! I thought you were taking the test next period!" Cara said urgently.
So Jessica never showed up for first period, Elizabeth thought with a thump of foreboding. But that feeling passed quickly, replaced by a much more intense emotion--anger. Was Jessica not even going to bother to show up? Did she completely space about the test? What the heck was her sister's problem?
And why was Cara still clutching her arm? Elizabeth opened her mouth to explain. "Cara, I'm not-"
"You have to tell me everything about the party. Everything," Cara demanded. "Like, now."
Elizabeth smiled mischievously. If Jessica wasn't going to bother coming to school that day, then fine. She was just going to have to accept the consequences. It was time for the "good twin" to have a little fun.
"Omigod, Cara, it was so intense," she gushed in Jessica's voice. "I don't even know where to begin!"
***
Standing in the outdoor hallway, Cara had Elizabeth's arm in a clench that would have made a WWE wrestler proud.
"I don't believe it." Her green eyes were wide with wonder. "You actually told Scott off in front of all his friends? But he's so hot!"
"Not when you get to know him," Elizabeth said blithely. She was really beginning to enjoy this. It wasn't often that her flair for storytelling was given such free rein. "Scott was acting like such a jerk when we were rowing around the lake, I totally pushed him overboard."
"You didn't!"
"I did!"
"Like, with all his clothes on and everything?" Cara asked, grinning.
"Even his precious Ray-Bans," Elizabeth replied. "Which, by the way, are now somewhere on the bottom of Secca Lake."
Cara laughed. "Jessica! You are evil!" She beamed with undisguised admiration. "But, God, it sounds like he really deserved it. Guys can be such losers sometimes. What did he do afterward?"
"He tried to climb back in the boat, but I rowed away," Elizabeth said with a shrug. "He ended up having to swim back to shore and he was not pleased. He actually kicked a tree, he was so mad, and totally broke two of his toes. Cried like a baby."
Cara cracked up laughing. "I wish I had been there! I'd give anything to see that."
Me too, Elizabeth thought wickedly, conjuring up a picture of Scott with lake gunk dripping from that awful chin fuzz of his. The guy was such a jerk. Elizabeth would have bet money that he was a big part of why Jessica had had the worst night ever.
Why didn't she listen to me when I warned her about him? Elizabeth wondered. But then she realized that her own disapproval had probably just made him more attractive. In the future maybe she should start talking up the egotists and morons and talking down the nice guys like Winston Egbert. Jessica would probably start following Winston around like a puppy dog.
Over Cara's shoulder, Elizabeth caught sight of Todd ambling toward them. She made a gesture with her hand to let him know she didn't want her cover blown. Todd paused and nodded, his eyes twinkling as he picked up on her message. He walked over and lazily looped an arm about Elizabeth's shoulders.
"Hey, Jess. You know something? You remind me more of your sister every day," he said with a thoughtful frown.
"Flattery will get you everywhere," Elizabeth said flirtatiously, bumping her hip against his.
Cara's jaw dropped slightly as she looked from Elizabeth to Todd and back again, thinking that Jessica was flirting with Todd. Everyone knew that Todd had once been the source of competition
between the two sisters. Knowing Cara and her big mouth, Elizabeth figured the gossip would be bouncing off the walls by the time she got to gym class that afternoon. A laugh bubbled up in Elizabeth's throat at the thought and she covered it with a cough.
"You okay, Jess?" Cara asked.
"Yeah. Fine. Just a little tickle," Elizabeth replied.
Cara bit her lip. Liz could tell she was dying to pump her for more info about the party but didn't want to go there in front of Todd.
"Well, I guess I'd better go," she said reluctantly.
"I have a history quiz next period and I haven't even glanced at the homework assignment."
"We'll catch up more later," Elizabeth promised Cara.
Cara's eyes twinkled with excitement as she looked up at Todd. "I'm sure we will. Bye, you two!" She waggled her fingers and slipped off into the crowd. "Lila!" she shouted moments later, catching up with her friend Lila Fowler. "Omigod! You are so not going to believe this!"
Elizabeth laughed. "What do you think? In ten years Cara is the head gossip columnist for Us Weekly? "
"Sounds about right," Todd mused.
"One thing you've gotta love about Cara: if you want a story spread around school, she's your girl," Elizabeth said, wrapping her arms around Todd's waist.
"And what story do you want spread all over school?" he asked, wrapping his arms around her as well.
Elizabeth quickly recounted all the tidbits she'd made up about Scott and Jessica. Todd laughed in wonder. "Nice imagery."
"Thank you," Elizabeth said, preening. "Honestly, I hope she did shove him overboard or something. I had a feeling that guy was going to end up getting her in trouble."
"Yeah, like Jessica has nothing to do with making her own decisions," Todd joked, planting a kiss on her forehead. "I wouldn't be surprised if she got him in trouble."
Elizabeth pulled away slightly, bristling. "Why do you have to be like that?"
"Like what?" Todd's eyes widened.
"Not everything is necessarily her fault, you know," Elizabeth said, removing her arms from his hips and crossing them over her chest. "I know she
doesn't have the best track record, but sometimes things do happen to her."
"Yeah. Right," Todd said with a snort.
"Real nice," Elizabeth replied. "You'd be sorry if you found out he'd really hurt her or something."
Todd glanced at her, confused. "Why are you defending her all of a sudden?"
"I'm not! I'm just saying... I hate the way you and Enid always think the absolute worst of her, that's all," Elizabeth replied. "She is still my sister, and she does occasionally try to do the right thing."
"I know," Todd said, his voice softening. "So, where is she, anyway? She did make it in time for her test, right?"
Elizabeth swallowed hard before responding. The last thing she wanted to do after getting all high-and-mighty with him was admit the truth-that Jessica still hadn't shown up. But what choice did she have?
"Actually... she's not here yet," Elizabeth replied, biting her lip as she glanced back toward the classroom where the test was being administered.
"Shocker," Todd said sarcastically.
"I wonder who's proctoring the second exam,'' Elizabeth mused aloud, so deep in thought she hardly noticed Todd's biting remark.
"Wait a minute, wait a minute. I know that look," Todd said. He put both hands on Elizabeth's shoulders and gave her a gentle shake. She blinked up at him, startled from her thoughts. "Liz, you are not thinking what I think you're thinking."
"What am I thinking?" Elizabeth hedged.
"You're thinking about taking the test for her," Todd said, lowering his voice urgently. "You're thinking about cheating for her."
Elizabeth's stomach turned at his use of the word "cheating." He was right, of course. But still. It wouldn't be just for Jessica. Elizabeth wanted the two of them to get this job more than anything. They had been talking about it ever since they were little kids. There was no way she was going to let Scott Daniels get in the way of that.
"It's not really cheating," Elizabeth said lamely.
Todd scoffed. "How do you figure?"
"Well, Jessica knows the answers. If she were here, she'd pass," Elizabeth said, reasoning. "She's just. .. not here."
"Exactly!" Todd blurted out, his face starting to turn pink. "The girl is too irresponsible to even show up to school on a day that is supposed to be so insanely important to both of you. You should be offended, but instead you're thinking about risking yourself for her."
"Yeah, but-"
"And you know what really pisses me off?" Todd added, venom practically dripping from his teeth.
"There is no way in hell she would bother to do the same thing for you."
Elizabeth's jaw dropped and her heart all but stopped beating. She couldn't believe that Todd was yelling at her right there in the middle of the crowded hallway.
"You don't know that," Elizabeth replied through her teeth. "Jessica would do anything for me."
"Yeah, except not force you to lie to your parents. Except not try to steal away the guy you like. Except not backstab your best friend," Todd rambled, growing more animated by the second.
"Look, Todd, I know Jessica can be selfish sometimes, but if there's one thing I know, it's that if I needed help, she would be there for me," Elizabeth told him, fuming.
"As long as there wasn't someplace better to be," Todd snapped. "Like a sale at the mall or the backseat of some jerk's car."
Elizabeth whipped back as if she'd been slapped.
"I can't believe you just said that," she told him, tears in her eyes.
Todd took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He looked down at the ground as if gathering his thoughts. "Okay. Okay. Maybe that was a little bit over the line-"
"Over the line? Todd, you just implied in one sentence not only that my sister couldn't give a crap about me, but that she is both shallow and a slut. I'd say that's so far beyond the line you can't even see the line anymore."
"Liz," Todd said, reaching for her arm.
Elizabeth flinched away, mortified, disgusted, and confused. She knew that people had a lot of opinions about Jessica; she simply hadn't realized that her own boyfriend's opinions were so vehemently negative.
"I have to go," she mumbled under her breath, turning for the door.
"Liz, don't be mad," Todd said. But he sounded more exasperated than sorry.
"I don't know what else I'm supposed to be," she told him. "Honestly, I can't even look at you right now."
Todd's jaw clenched and he shoved one hand into the pocket of his varsity jacket. "Then I guess you don't have to anymore," he said coolly. He turned on his heel and walked stiffly away.
Elizabeth couldn't move. After a long moment when she was aware of nothing other than her sweating palms and her racing heart, she suddenly noticed the crowd of gawkers who had paused to watch the fight. When she looked at them, they all quickly looked away. Elizabeth turned and shoved her way back into the school, burning with humiliation. As soon as she was inside the cool building, she paused against the wall to take a breath and try to make sense of what had just happened.
Had she and Todd just broken up? Was that what his parting shot had meant?
Omigod, Elizabeth thought, her breathing becoming labored. No, no, no, no, no!
"Jessica? Jessica? Hello... ?"
Elizabeth looked up into the eyes of her chemistry teacher, Mr. Russo. He smiled tightly and glanced down at the clipboard he was holding.
"You're taking the Sweet Valley Tour Guide test this period, right? You're on my list," he said.
"Oh... uh... right," Elizabeth replied, her voice a croak.
"Well then, shall we?" he asked, holding the door to the classroom open. "Everyone else is already inside."
Elizabeth felt like curling up into a ball and crying. She felt like running to the nurse to ask for a pass home. But someone had to take this test for Jessica. And with the hall rapidly emptying and Jessica nowhere in sight, it looked like it was going to have to be her heartbroken twin.
***
"Maybe it's not as bad as you think," Enid said sympathetically. She yanked a paper towel from the dispenser in the girls' room and wet it in the sink before handing it to Liz.
"It's worse!" Elizabeth dabbed at her swollen red eyes with the towel. "I was so upset I could hardly think straight. I know I flunked."
The second version of the test had probably been no harder than the one Elizabeth had taken earlier, even though the questions were worded differently. But as far as Elizabeth was concerned, it might as
well have been written in Greek. The words swam about on the page, blurred by her uncontrollable tears. No matter how hard she tried to concentrate, all she could think about was Todd and his ire toward Jessica. Not to mention the closed-off expression on his face right before he'd walked away. It was almost as if he didn't care at all. As if walking away from her was the easiest thing in the world.
This time around, she had been the last one in the classroom to hand in her answer sheet. As she fled the room, Mr. Russo called out Jessica's name, but she pretended not to hear. If she'd stopped and turned around right then, her chem teacher would have been greeted with the sight of her blubbering red face, and that wouldn't have been good for either of them.
"I totally screwed up everything," Elizabeth said with a sniffle.
"Oh, please. It's not like this is all your fault," Enid replied. "You did have help."
Enid didn't name names, but her meaning was clear: if it weren't for Jessica, Elizabeth wouldn't be in the second-floor girls' room right now crying. Liz, however, didn't call her on it. She had already
fought with Todd over Jessica that day. She didn't want to fight with Enid, too.
She took a deep breath and looked at her reflection in the mirror. Her face was all blotchy and pink, and the lip gloss and blush she had applied in Jessica's room that morning were completely gone.
"Look at me," she said, sniffling again. "I'm a total mess."
"Now, that I won't disagree with," Enid said as she offered Liz a dry towel.
Elizabeth snorted a laugh. "Thanks a lot."
"Hey! You're laughing! There's hope!" Enid said with a smile. She dug in her bag and offered Liz some lip gloss and a brush. "Here. Fix yourself up and you'll feel better."
Elizabeth did as she was told, sweeping her hair into a ponytail and taking a few more deep breaths. Soon her skin started to return to its normal hue, even if her eyes did still look sad and tired.
"See? It's not the end of the world," Enid said, patting Liz on the back.
"No. But it is the end of Todd and me." Elizabeth was barely able to croak out the words. "And it's the end of next summer, too. If Jessica doesn't pass, it's going to totally suck."
"Look at it this way," Enid said, lifting one shoulder. "She has a better shot of passing with you taking the test for her than she would have if she'd taken it herself. She hasn't opened a book the entire time I've known her. At least this way you have a chance."
Elizabeth smirked. "Wow. You are just full of bright sides today."
"Always," Enid replied, fluffing her brown hair in the mirror. "And if that doesn't work, you can always try thinking about something really depressing--like starving people and genocide in Darfur. Always kind of puts things in perspective for me:"
"Thanks a lot," Elizabeth replied. "Now I feel miserable and shallow."
"Sorry. I was only trying to help," Enid said.
"I know." Elizabeth turned around and leaned back against the cold sink. "Todd was too, I think. Until I totally bit his head off and he went all defensive on me."
"Defensive? Sounds more like he went ballistic," Enid said, leaning into the mirror to apply some lip gloss. "It's one thing to think those things about Jessica, but to throw them in your face like that?"
"I know. But he's right on some level," Elizabeth
said, looking down at her bare toenails in Jessica's expensive sandals. "I do let her walk all over me and get practically zilch in return."
"All you guys need is some time to cool off," Enid told her, screwing the top back on her pot of gloss. "You're already feeling more levelheaded, right? He probably is too. Just give him a little time and then you guys can talk it all out."
"You think?" Elizabeth asked hopefully.
Enid dropped her gloss back into her bag and zipped it closed. "Do you remember what you told me when I was so miserable about breaking up with Ronnie?" she asked, turning to Elizabeth.
"No. But it was probably stupid," Elizabeth said wryly.
"It so wasn't. You said that if a guy really likes you, he won't let a misunderstanding get in the way. Not for long, anyway."
"Yeah, but this was no misunderstanding. We were both very clear about how we felt," Elizabeth replied. Her eyes filled, but she refused to let herself cry again.
"Yeah, but the thing is, you were talking about how you feel about Jessica," Enid said, touching
Elizabeth's arm. "Not how you feel about each other."
At this thought, Elizabeth felt a flutter of hope. She was about to respond when the bathroom door flung open, admitting a group of giggling sophomores followed by Dana Larson, lead singer of Valley of Death, SVH's resident emo-rock band.
"Damn. What time's the funeral and can I come?" Dana asked, taking one look at Elizabeth and Enid. She walked over to the mirror and checked out her outfit from the side. In her usual homage to punk style, she was wearing a huge black sweater, purple leggings, and pink vinyl combat boots. Her dark hair, as always, half covered her face and her heavily lined eyes.
"No funeral," Elizabeth replied, wadding up some of the wet paper towels she had left around the sink, and tossing them in the garbage can.
"Unless you can have a relationship funeral."
"It's been done. Usually involves a voodoo doll and a whole lot of incense," Dana said matter-of-factly. "You and Wilkins terminal?"
"We're not totally sure on that," Enid said before Elizabeth could start crying all over again.
Dana glanced at Elizabeth's blotchy face and snorted as if to say "Yeah, right."
"Guys suck," she said, applying some red lipstick. She put her finger in her mouth and then pulled it out to keep the color from transferring to her teeth.
"Take my ex, for example. We'll call him Loserman, since he no longer deserves a real name."
Elizabeth and Enid exchanged amused looks.
"Dude was a saxophonist in this cheesy swing band and I was like a zombie for him, even though he walked around in a zoot suit half the time," Dana said, rolling her eyes.
"So what happened?" Enid asked.
"Turned out he was more interested in playing around with other girls than with playing his saxophone," Dana said flatly. "Believe me, I am better off without Loserman." She adjusted the bangle bracelets on her wrist. "And you're probably better off without Mr. Too Tall, too," she added to Elizabeth. "It's so much more gratifying to be independent, you know? Alone."
Elizabeth's stomach clenched at the prospect of being without Todd.
"What happened?" Dana asked, wide-eyed. "You just went color free."
"I think I'm gonna be sick," Elizabeth said, suddenly recalling in vivid detail the huge helpings of pancakes she'd downed that morning.
She turned and slammed her way into one of the stalls.
***
"You okay, Liz?" Mr. Collins, the advisor for the Oracle Web site, asked, joining Elizabeth at her desk. "You look a little green. And usually that's a metaphor, but I think you actually are a little green."
Somehow, Elizabeth had managed to get through the entire school day and was now hiding out in the Oracle office. After hours of avoiding Todd in the halls and fretting over Jessica, who had never shown up, she had thought that getting a little writing done might be a good elixir for her crappy day. Unfortunately, she had yet to type one word. She looked up at her concerned mentor, and his blue eyes studied her face.
"I'll be all right," she said. "Just had a bad day."
"Well, I have an assignment that might cheer you up," he said, leaning back against the chair next to
hers. There was a smile on his handsome face, and he really did look hopeful that he was about to deliver some welcome news.
"Really?" Elizabeth sat up a bit straighter. It might be nice to have a new assignment to immerse herself in. Something good and distracting.
"How would you like to cover the surfing competition this weekend?" Mr. Collins suggested.
"I would love to!" Elizabeth replied, perking up considerably. "I even already have an angle in mind," she added, thinking of the Will Chase-Sonny Callahan rivalry. "But what about John?"
John Pfeiffer was the sports editor for The Oracle and usually covered events like this one.
Mr. Collins gave Elizabeth a wry smile. "John told me this morning that he won't be able to make it. They're holding a tennis tournament at the country club the same day, which the Patmans are sponsoring. Bruce is, of course, the top seed."
"Of course," Elizabeth said, rolling her eyes.
"Mr. Patman, in his capacity as chairman of the school board, passed down the word that he would be pretty upset if coverage of a legitimate sporting event was preempted by a bunch of, quote, longhaired stoners in seal suits, unquote."
"Did you get that on the record?" Elizabeth asked hungrily.
"Unfortunately, no." Mr. Collins stood and pushed up the already rolled sleeves of his oxford shirt. "But you gotta love that guy for the unapologetic Mr. Monopoly attitude. The man knows who he is and sticks with it."
Elizabeth snorted a laugh.
"Anyway, if you want the assignment, it's yours," Mr. Collins said with a smile. "If nothing else, it's the perfect excuse to spend your entire Saturday at the beach."
"True," Elizabeth said.
"So, are you in?"
Elizabeth took a deep breath, her heart feeling heavy. She and Todd were supposed to go to the competition together-pack a picnic, cheer for Will, hang out all day. The idea of going there alone and potentially bumping into him made her insides squirm, but what was she going to do? Refuse a great assignment and let Mr. Collins down in the process? Not likely. She wasn't about to let guy trouble get in the way of her job.
"All right. I'm in," she told Mr. Collins with a
resolute nod. "I'll start the preliminary interviews this afternoon."
"Good." He started to go, but paused when Elizabeth looked back at her blank screen and sighed. "Are you sure you're okay? I could give you a ride home if you need one."
"No. It's all right," Elizabeth mumbled, avoiding his gaze. "I have my car. Maybe I'll just drive home with the top down. I could probably use some air."
"Good idea. Go home and rest. You can start on the surfing thing tomorrow," Mr. Collins said.
Elizabeth finally gave in and admitted to herself that she wasn't going to be getting any work done. She gathered her books and started for the door, wondering if she would find Jessica at home, or a legion of police cars delivering the news that something awful had happened. On her way through the door, she was so distracted she collided with Olivia Davidson, who was carrying a huge stack of notebooks-all of which ended up on the floor.
"I'm so sorry!" Elizabeth blurted out, crouching to the floor to help Olivia gather her things. "I didn't even see you there."
"No worries!" Olivia grinned good-naturedly, her
brown curls peeping out from underneath a vibrant purple scarf. "I'm supposed to be reviewing all the new recycled-paper notebooks for my column, so you've just helped me test how well they hold up to wear and tear."
"Well, glad I could help, then," Elizabeth said, forcing a smile. She handed a few notebooks over and they both stood.
"I just saw Todd on his way to football practice. He barely even looked at me when I said hi," Olivia said as she straightened the stack of books.
"Everything okay with him?"
Elizabeth swallowed hard. "We had a fight."
Instantly, her eyes stung with tears. Just saying the words upset her all over again. She really had to get a grip.
"Oh, is that all?" Olivia said, waving a hand.
"You guys will work it out in no time."
"Do you really think so?" Elizabeth asked, willing to grab on to any slim thread of hope.
"Please," Olivia replied. "Todd is one of the very few enlightened and evolved guys at this school. I know it's gonna be fine. But if you want, I can read your cards for you. I just learned how from my
aunt out in Colorado, and I think I'm getting really good at it."
Olivia had always been into a green lifestyle, and lately she had started to dabble in new age stuff as well. She always had some colorful crystal or another around her neck, and apparently tarot cards were a new obsession.
"Thanks anyway," Elizabeth replied. "I kind of just want to get home."
"Okay! Well, if you change your mind, let me know. I keep the cards with me at all times, so I can do your reading at lunch tomorrow if you want," Olivia offered, patting her brown hemp bag.
"Thanks. See you later, Liv."
Elizabeth slipped past her friend into the hall and trudged slowly toward the lobby. She was glad that both Olivia and Enid had such positive views of her relationship, but she couldn't seem to muster up the same kind of confidence.
Maybe if I at least knew that Jessica was okay, she thought, checking her cell for messages, then I could concentrate on how to fix the situation with Todd.
There was nothing on her phone but a bolstering text from Enid. What if Jessica still wasn't home?
What was Elizabeth supposed to tell her parents if Jessica never showed for dinner? With another sigh, Elizabeth shoved through the front doors of SVH, out into the bright California sunshine, thinking that this day was never going to end. That was when she saw her sister bounding toward her, blond hair shimmering in the sun, with enough energy to put a golden retriever puppy to shame.
***
"Jessica! Thank God you're all-"
"Omigosh, Liz. The whole thing was so utterly humiliating I could die," Jessica gushed, pulling her sister over to one of the benches that lined the front walk. "You wouldn't believe what a jerk Scott turned out to be. I blocked his e-mail and deleted all his numbers from my cell. If he ever tries to call me again, he's going to be so--"
Jessica stopped talking abruptly and her eyes widened.
"What are you doing in my dress?" she demanded.
"And my new sandals! I'm gone one morning and you take that as a free pass to raid my closet?"
Elizabeth looked down at her lap. She was so exhausted and disoriented she had forgotten she was wearing Jessica's clothes.
"Oh, I-"
Suddenly, Jessica's expression morphed from irritated to excited. "You pretended to be me, didn't you?" she exclaimed, cutting Elizabeth off. She grabbed Liz up in a hug and crushed her so hard Liz was sure she heard a rib crack. "I knew it! I knew you'd find a way to fix everything! You are the best sister in the entire state of California. Have I ever told you that?"
"Not recently," Elizabeth replied with a wan smile.
"So you took the test for me?" Jessica said, her blue-green eyes twinkling. "How brill! You ace everything. We are going to have so much fun next summer!"
Elizabeth was finding it hard to breathe in the face of all Jessica's exuberance. "Jess, about the test-"
"Oh, don't worry. I'll make it up to you somehow,"
Jessica said, waving a hand. "You don't know what this means to me, Liz. I was so sure that Scott had ruined our entire summer. But of course you wouldn't let that happen."
Exhausted, Elizabeth felt her shoulders slump. Suddenly, she found that she didn't have the heart to tell Jessica what had happened that day. Not about Todd or the fact that she had half wept her way through Jessica's test-none of it. She was just relieved that Jessica was home safe and sound and that she could finally go back to her room and curl up under the covers to wallow. Besides, the test scores would be posted soon enough. Until then, Elizabeth would hold on to the dim hope that somehow, by some miracle, she had managed to pass the exam for both of them.
"So, who else did you fool?" Jessica asked, crossing her legs and turning toward Elizabeth with interest. "Did Cara think you were me? I bet she did, right? Right? She is so totally oblivious."
Elizabeth was trying to think of a way to wrangle herself out of this high-energy inquisition when Jessica's grin suddenly turned into a frown. Her eyes darted past Elizabeth and her brows knit.
"What's up with him?" she asked with a sneer.
Elizabeth turned to find Todd, dressed in his practice football uniform, trudging past them toward the parking lot. He had been scowling at Jessica, but the moment his eyes caught Liz's, he turned and looked pointedly away. Without a word to either of them, he just kept walking. Elizabeth felt like he was taking her heart with him.
"He must've forgotten something in his car," she muttered. "He's probably in a rush to get back to practice."
"Uh, okay. But he could at least wave," Jessica said.
"I don't want to talk about this," Elizabeth, standing, told her sister. "Let's go home."
"Wait. Liz, is something going on with you and Todd?" Jessica asked with concern.
"Sort of. Not really." Elizabeth hedged. "Seriously, can we please just talk about this later? I want to go home."
"Okay, fine," Jessica said with a shrug. "You go. I have cheerleading practice."
For the first time, Elizabeth noticed that Jessica was dressed in her practice skirt and tank top and had her SVH cheerleading duffel bag with her. Liz's heart sank. She realized she had been hoping to
have a heart-to-heart with her sister about Todd once they got home, and to get some advice about how to approach him-all without divulging the particulars of their fight, of course. But Jessica wasn't even going to be around.
"But you missed all your classes," Elizabeth said in consternation. "What if you run into one of your teachers?"
"Whatever," Jessica said, rolling her eyes. "I'll just tell them I was in the nurse's office during their class and I forgot to get a pass. It's not like they actually care when they're halfway out the door already. And if you mention female troubles to the men, you can get away with anything."
Elizabeth sighed. Her sister, she hated to admit, made some valid points.
"I'd better go. Coach'll freak if I'm late," Jessica said, shouldering her bag. "I'll get a ride home from Lila later. And, Liz, thanks again for everything today. You're the best."
"You're welcome," Elizabeth said wanly. "But, Jess-"
She was about to tell her sister that she wasn't going to be doing anything like this again, but Jessica was already halfway across the front lawn to
the gym. Once again, functioning in her own little world.
Taking a deep breath, Elizabeth turned toward the parking lot. She saw Todd striding away from his car in the opposite direction with his shoulder pads dangling from his fingers, taking a circuitous route to the practice field-probably to avoid bumping into her. Her heart instantly welled with sorrow and the realization of how much she had lost in one short day.
All for Jessica. All for a girl who cared more about not missing cheerleading practice than she did about her own sister.
***
"Jess! You are a total celebrity!" Cara bubbled, rushing over to Jessica in the locker room as Jessica adjusted her pleated red practice skirt.
"I am?" Jessica asked, arching her brows.
"I have been telling everyone how you humiliated Scott at the party," Cara told her, her green eyes twinkling with excitement as she toyed with her long, dark ponytail. "You're, like, infamous now."
Jessica blinked. How she had humiliated Scott? What had Elizabeth been up to that day?
"What exactly have you been telling everyone?" Jessica asked innocently, leaning down to retie her sneaker. "I just want to make sure you haven't left out any important details."
"Don't worry," Lila said, her light brown hair falling over her pretty face as she struggled in vain with the zipper on her own skirt. "She probably invented most of it. You know how skilled Cara is at exaggerating."
"Still, I'd like to know," Jessica prompted.
Quickly, Lila recounted the story the way she had heard it: How Jessica had shoved Scott into the lake and rowed away so that he couldn't reach the boat. How he'd lost his favorite sunglasses. How he'd freaked out like a little baby and broken his foot lacking a tree. It was all so vivid and perfect Jessica had to laugh.
"Yeah, yeah. I'm sure it was hilarious," Lila groused. "Now will you help me with this stupid zipper? I think I've got a thread stuck in it. I am so going to talk Daddy into buying us new uniforms. These are so cheap they're giving me hives."
Jessica reached over and freed the zipper with one quick yank. Her blue-green eyes glittered with secret amusement. Liz definitely knew how to weave a good story. Now no one would ever have to know what had actually happened up at the lake-the fear, the humiliation, the being forced to wait hours for Aubrey to drive her home that morning because Scott had taken off and stranded her there.
"Well, you know what they say," she told her friends, slamming her locker. "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned."
And in this case, of course, it didn't hurt to have a twin with a vivid imagination.
"I'll bet Scott never thought hell would turn out to be so cold and wet," Cara said, earning a laugh from Jessica, Lila, and all the girls around them.
As the team filed out into the gym and toward the back door, Jessica spotted Ken Matthews--the SVH quarterback-chatting with some of his teammates as they made their way to the practice field. She walked over and linked arms with Ken, who smiled as if her presence was a pleasant surprise. At six foot four, with blond hair, blue eyes, and a
seriously lithe bod, Ken was hands down one of the hottest guys in school.
"What's up, Ken Doll?" Jessica said, flirting.
"Nada mucho, Barbie," he replied.
It was an old joke between them. Back when they were kids, someone had made a crack about the two of them looking like Barbie and Ken, and they had been teasing each other about it ever since.
"So, I feel like I never see you anymore. How are you?" Jessica asked as they strode out into the sun.
"Hot," Ken said, looking her up and down in her miniskirt. "And getting hotter all the time."
"Omigod! You are so cheesy!" Jessica teased, whacking his arm. But a pleased blush crept up her neck and into her face. What could be better than a gorgeous guy appreciating her own gorgeousness?
"What's up with you?" Ken asked, his eyes narrowing as he studied her. "You look like you just won the lottery or something."
Jessica laughed lightly. For the first time all day, she felt as if she could truly put the horror of the night before behind her. "You could say that," she replied. "You could definitely say that."
***
IT was the longest week of Elizabeth's life. Not talking to Todd was torture. She kept her cell phone with her every minute of every hour of every day, just in case he decided to cave in and call. Watching TV with her parents-her phone was jammed in the front pocket of her jeans. Doing homework at the library-her phone was on vibrate right next to her books. Trying to relax by the pool--her phone was tucked safely under a towel, away from Jessica's splashing. Every time it rang, Elizabeth pounced on it like her sister on a
cosmetics freebie, but more often than not, it was just Enid or someone from The Oracle calling.
Wednesday night, Elizabeth was trying to concentrate on a paper for history when the phone trilled. Her heart hit her throat and she scrambled for her cell so quickly she knocked it and half her notebooks onto the floor. When she finally retrieved it, she was disappointed to see Enid's name on the caller ID.
"Hello?" she said as she dragged herself back into her desk chair.
"Wow. That was one happy greeting," Enid replied sarcastically.
"Sorry. I was just hoping ..."
Elizabeth sighed and toyed with a pencil on her desk. The sentence was too pathetic to finish.
"Liz, come on," Enid said. "This is getting ridiculous. So what if Todd hasn't called? If you want to talk to him, just call him."
"I know. I've almost done it like a million times," Elizabeth said, slumping down in her chair. "I just can't."
"Why not? It's just Todd. It's not like you're cold-calling Zac Efron or something," Enid joked.
Elizabeth managed a smile. "It's just... I keep trying to figure out what to say, how to start, and I can't get past 'hello.' What if he doesn't want to talk to me?"
"Please. He is so sitting by the phone, waiting for you to call," Enid replied.
"You think?" Elizabeth asked hopefully.
"You don't?" Enid replied. "The guy is totally in love with you. It's kind of sickening, actually."
"I don't know," Elizabeth said. "Every time I see him in class, he looks right through me like I'm not even there."
"Well, then he's just being stubborn. Boys are so bad at making the first move after a fight. They, like, live to be right all the time," Enid said. "That should be the first line in the boy manual."
Elizabeth chuckled. A boy manual would be such a fabulous thing to have.
"Or maybe he's just not talking to you because you're not talking to him," Enid added. "He might think you're looking right through him, you know? Wait! That reminds me. I read something in Cosmo before..."
Elizabeth could hear Enid rustling through her
things on the other end of the line. As different as her best friend and her twin were, Enid's unkempt room resembled Jessica's much more than it resembled Liz's.
"Here it is." There was the distinct sound of pages flipping, and finally Enid spoke. " 'You never know how cold the relationship's water is until you stick your feet in,'" she read.
Elizabeth frowned. "Okay. What does that even mean?"
"It means that unless you talk to Todd, you're never going to know if he really is still mad or if he just thinks you're mad!" Enid exclaimed, as if it were so very obvious.
"Right. I guess that sort of makes sense," Elizabeth said.
"So you're going to call him?" Enid asked excitedly.
"No," Elizabeth said.
Enid groaned and slapped the magazine closed.
"Fine. If you're not going to work with me here, then I don't know what to tell you."
"I appreciate the effort, Enid," Elizabeth replied, staring at the blinking cursor on her computer
screen. "I just... I guess I'm not ready yet. I'm too afraid he's going to laugh in my face."
"He's not," Enid said confidently.
"Well, as soon as I think that's true, I'll call him."
"Swear?" Enid asked.
"Swear," Elizabeth replied.
***
Thursday morning, Elizabeth walked to her locker with her shoulders back and her head held high, trying not to look as morose as she felt. She couldn't believe she had gotten through another night with no call from Todd.
"He must really hate me," she muttered.
"He doesn't hate you," Enid said instantly.
Elizabeth blinked, startled. "Did I say that out loud?"
"Kinda." Enid looked at her with so much sympathy in her eyes it made Elizabeth want to cry for her own patheticness.
"Okay. We're not thinking about him," she said, shaking her blond hair back as she started her locker combination. "There are about two
million more important things going on in the world."
"Yes. Exactly," Enid said with a nod. Now if I could only think of one . . ,, Elizabeth thought.
"Hey, girls." Cara Walker greeted them from a few lockers over. She slammed her locker door and turned to them with a hungry glint in her eye. Elizabeth's heart dropped. It was blatantly obvious that Cara had overheard her conversation with Enid and that she was dying to know more. Just what she needed: the gossip brigade of SVH making her and Todd its story of the day.
"What's up, Cara?" Elizabeth asked, avoiding her curious gaze as she dug in her locker.
"I haven't seen you and Todd together much lately," Cara said, hugging her books to her chest. She kept her eye on the crowded hall around them, as if looking for bigger stories while she pumped Elizabeth for hers. "He's not, like, sick or something, is he? Because, I mean, I can't imagine him staying away from you for any other reason, unless something was really wrong...."
Elizabeth grabbed her heavy chemistry book and
suddenly saw herself flattening Cara with it, cartoon style.
"Speaking of being sick, have you guys noticed that Will Chase hasn't been in school since Monday?" Enid interjected.
Actually, Elizabeth had noticed. Will's absence had made it impossible for her to get the preliminary interview she needed for her story about the surfing competition that weekend.
Cara brightened. "You mean you haven't heard?" she practically squealed.
Elizabeth could have kissed Enid for diverting Cara's attention.
"Heard what?" Elizabeth asked.
"Will is, like, in hiding," Cara said in a hushed tone. "No one has seen him. Not even the grunge factor he always hangs out with," she said, wrinkling her nose in distaste.
Elizabeth and Enid both laughed. "Hiding from what?" Enid asked. "Is the FBI after him or something? Did he take someone out with his surfboard?"
Cara scoffed as if Enid were just so ignorant.
"No. The rumor is he's all depressed and stuff
about the competition and the whole Sonny Callahan thing. Now that he's not a lock to win, he's gone totally catatonic. He's been holed up in his room with the curtains drawn and hasn't set foot on the beach in days. People are saying he's not even going to compete."
"Seriously?" Elizabeth asked. "That doesn't sound like Will. He's been training for this since we were practically toddlers. He even has this big surf company sponsoring him. I don't think he could drop out even if he wanted to."
"Please! The sponsorship just puts more pressure on him. He can't handle it!" Cara informed them.
"He's so worried he's going to tank and disappoint everyone he's not even going to try."
"I don't see it," Elizabeth replied, slamming her locker. "There must be something else going on."
Cara rolled her eyes in exasperation. Nothing annoyed her more than when the students of SVH refused to take her gossip as gospel.
"Well, whatever. I'm putting my money on Callahan," she said. "He is so hot."
"Yeah, but not as hot as Will," Enid said loyally.
Cara sniffed. "To each her own," she replied haughtily. "See ya!"
As Cara sailed off toward homeroom, Elizabeth turned to Enid. "It's so weird. I knew Will wasn't here all week, but I never really thought about why. I guess I've been so distracted I didn't even think that something might really be wrong."
"Don't tell me you're going to beat yourself up about this, too," Enid said as they walked down the hallway together. "Between Todd and the tour guide scores coming out today, you have enough on your plate."
"Oh God, the scores!" Elizabeth said, nearly tripping herself, she stopped so abruptly. She put her hand over her stomach as it turned dangerously. "I totally forgot they were coming out today."
"When are they posting them?" Enid asked, biting her lip.
"After fourth period, I think," Elizabeth replied.
"Did you ever tell Jessica it wasn't a done deal?" Enid asked. "Is she prepared?"
"No," Elizabeth said, blushing in shame. Her pulse pounded nervously. "I didn't have the heart. I mean, why freak her out when it might all turn out to be okay?"
***
"I can't believe it! This is so not happening!"
Jessica stared at the test results posted on the bulletin board outside the principal's office. Elizabeth approached her sister tentatively, her heart slamming around in her chest. Obviously, the worst had occurred, but she had to see for herself. She looked up at the board and there it was in black and white.
WAKEFIELD, E: PASS
WAKEFIELD, J: FAIL
"I failed!" Jessica wailed to her sister.
Well, not you, exactly, Elizabeth corrected silently.
"I--I don't understand how it happened," Elizabeth stammered, her cheeks growing pink.
Jessica stared at Elizabeth, her shocked expression hardening into one of suspicion.
"Me neither, considering that you passed," she said, her voice low but piercing. "How can you pass the test one period and then fail the exact same one an hour later?"
Elizabeth swallowed hard. Her guilt overwhelmed her, along with the sting of failure-a sting she wasn't used to.
"Well, the questions were a little bit different,"
she said, clutching the strap on her book bag for dear life.
"Yeah, but it had to be pretty much the same stuff," Jessica replied. "They wouldn't make one version harder than the other. That wouldn't be fair." She crossed her arms over her stomach and leaned back against the wall next to the board, as if she couldn't look at it anymore. "How could you do this to me?"
"Me? I didn't do anything to you!" Elizabeth replied in a whisper. The hall was crowded, after all, and a few teachers were loitering a couple of yards away. "You're the one who stayed out all night and didn't even bother to show up for school. I was just trying to help."
"Yeah. A lot of good that did me," Jessica said sarcastically, looking away.
"I don't believe you," Elizabeth fumed, her guilt turning instantly to anger. "Do you even realize what I went through for you that day? Do you even care? You broke, like, ten of Mom and Dad's rules and what happens to you? Nothing. Consequences, zero. And why? Because I helped you. I cheated for you," Elizabeth hissed, lowering her
voice. "And I lost my boyfriend in the process. I'm the only one who paid for your screwup."
Wow. It felt really good to get that off her chest. Jessica looked at Liz, her blue-green eyes soft, and for a split second Elizabeth was sure she was going to apologize, but she was wrong. Jessica's softness disappeared in an instant and was replaced by a hard expression.
"So you did this on purpose? To make sure that I paid for what I did?" Jessica said accusingly, her skin turning a bright, indignant pink.
Elizabeth laughed. She had to. Leave it to Jessica to completely miss the point and make it all about her.
"You are totally insane," she said.
"Am I?" Jessica asked, standing up straight. "It makes perfect sense to me. You're all pissed off because I get away with something, so you decide to teach me a lesson. Sounds exactly like something the high-and-mighty Liz Wakefield would do."
"You are totally cracked," Elizabeth replied, so angry now she felt as if she were going to explode.
"All I did that day was worry about you. Take care of your crap. Lie and cheat for you."
"Well, gee, Liz. Thanks for nothing," Jessica said sarcastically, flinging a hand up toward the test results.
"You cannot be mad at me about this," Elizabeth replied through her teeth. "You should have been here to take your own test. It's not my fault you weren't."
"Don't tell me what I can and can't be mad about, Liz," Jessica said, tossing her glossy blond hair over her shoulder. "I know you flunked me on purpose and I'm never going to forgive you for it. Never."
Then she turned on her heel and stormed off down the hall, her chin up in a self-righteous pose. Elizabeth turned and slumped against the wall, stunned. Her legs felt like rubber and her throat was completely dry. It was amazing how Jessica could twist the truth to suit her own needs. And now Liz had lost not only Todd but her sister as well. All because she had tried to help.
How had one stupid favor gone so hideously wrong?
***
The very idea of sitting through another lunch period without Todd made Elizabeth feel weak, so instead she took her bagged lunch and ducked out the back door of the school. She just wanted to be alone so that she could think and sort out her feelings. It was a rare cloudy day for Southern California, and a cool breeze whipped Elizabeth's hair off her face as she made her way to the practice fields behind the school.
Off in the distance, a freshman gym class was playing soccer under the watchful eye of Mr.
Crowe, one of the school's gym teachers. But the practice football field was deserted. Elizabeth sunk down onto the empty bleachers and stared blankly at the green grass crisscrossed by the faded white yard lines. The air smelled faintly of freshly mown lawn, and Elizabeth recalled the last time she had sat there, watching Todd and the team work their way through a grueling practice. Ken had tossed up an arching pass as Todd had streaked down the field with Austin Handler, one of the SVH defenders, right on his heels. It had seemed as if there was no way Todd could make the catch with Austin covering him so closely, but at the last second, Todd had faked Austin out and plucked the ball right out of the air. Elizabeth had been so transfixed she hadn't even realized how loudly she had cheered until Jessica and the other cheerleaders had started teasing her.
Before Elizabeth knew it, tears started trickling down her cheeks. It was amazing how everything could change so quickly. One second she and Todd were the perfect couple, and the next they weren't even speaking. She shivered, hugging herself in her thin T-shirt as the wind kicked up. Why had she
thought that coming out here would be a good idea? The only way this could get more depressing would be for it to start raining.
Liz was about to get up and retreat to the warmth of the school when suddenly someone slipped a jacket over her shoulders. She recognized the scent of Todd's aftershave before she even turned around. Her heart was in her throat.
"Don't say anything," he told her with a tentative glance. "Let me talk first, okay?"
Elizabeth nodded, too stunned to speak. Todd sat down next to her, and the added warmth of his body heat negated the chill in the air. He was here. He was really here. And he was talking to her again. She slipped her arms into the leather sleeves of his varsity jacket, savoring the familiar feeling of the quilted lining.
"So, I've been thinking a lot the past few days and I've come to a conclusion," Todd said, lacing his fingers together and leaning his forearms on his thighs. He was wearing a green rugby shirt that brought out the gold flecks in his eyes, and his brown hair looked sexy all tossed by the wind. Elizabeth was practically mesmerized. "Would you like to hear my conclusion?" he asked.
"Sure," Elizabeth replied.
"We're both a couple of idiots," he said.
Elizabeth laughed and blushed, looking down at her untouched lunch on the bench in front of her.
"We haven't talked in, like, three days," he said.
"I don't know about you, but for me it's pretty much sucked. And I figure that considering how idiotic we both are, if one of us didn't say something soon, we might never talk again and that would really suck, so--"
"Todd?" Elizabeth said.
"Yeah?" he asked.
"You're rambling," she told him jokingly.
"Right." He pressed his palms into his jeans.
"Okay, so I'm not saying I think I was totally wrong. I mean, I think we both said some stupid stuff, so I think we should just call a truce so that we can kiss and make up. Because the not-kissing thing has definitely sucked."
Elizabeth laughed again. "I totally agree."
Todd smiled. "Good."
He reached up and ran a thumb along her cheek, gently clearing away one of her tears. Elizabeth's heart fluttered and she felt her pulse in every inch of her body as his dark eyes looked into hers. He
leaned in and their lips touched and Elizabeth felt as if she had just woken up after some horrible, lonely nightmare.
"I missed you," he said, leaning his forehead against hers.
"I missed you, too," she replied.
"Liz, I'm so sorry-"
"I thought we weren't apologizing," she reminded him.
"Right." He blinked and sat back slightly but slid an arm around her back. "So I'm not sorry."
"Me neither," she replied with a grin.
"Good," he said, smiling back.
A sudden gust of wind blew all Elizabeth's hair forward and several strands stuck to her face where her tears had started to dry. She shoved it back and groped in her bag for a ponytail holder. Todd laughed and fished from his own bag a cafeteria napkin, which he handed to her. Elizabeth fixed her hair, wiped her face, blew her nose, and felt much, much better.
"Todd?" she said tentatively.
"Yeah?"
"I really can't believe some of the things I said
to you," she said, toying with the now crumpled napkin.
"Yeah. I said some pretty stupid stuff too," he said. "All that crap about Jessica... Maybe I'm not her biggest fan, but I shouldn't have said those things. My sister irritates me half the time, but I'd probably waste someone else if they said stuff like that about her."
Elizabeth scoffed. "Yeah, well, I'm not Jessica's biggest fan at the moment either."
"Do you want to talk about it?" he asked.
"I don't know. Do you think it's safe?" she said, only half serious.
"Let me guess," Todd said. "She saw the test results."
"Yeah," Elizabeth said.
"Yeah, I saw them too. I figured that might cause a problem," he said. "But I'm glad you passed, at least."
"Thanks."
"So she freaked?" he asked.
"Big-time," Elizabeth replied. "It's so insane. It's like she doesn't even believe I tried."
"Well, I know you did," Todd told her.
"Thanks." Elizabeth took a deep breath and blew it out. "You were so right. I never should have taken that test for her. It's not me, and I knew that. I knew it when you said it to me. I think that's why I blew up like that--because I knew you were right."
"Well, you did it for the right reasons," Todd said, giving her a squeeze. "You were just trying to help, and you wanted to spend time with your sister next summer. That's understandable."
"Wow," Elizabeth said, looking up at him incredulously. "You're getting really good at this."
"At what?" he asked.
"This being understanding thing."
Todd shrugged. "I've been working on it. And no matter what I think of Jessica, I love how much you love her."
Elizabeth smiled and Todd leaned in to kiss her forehead. As her eyes fluttered closed, he kissed her right cheek, then her left, then her nose before finally arriving at her lips.
"What kind of kiss do you call that?" she asked when she'd caught her breath.
"Hmmm... a connect-the-dots kiss?" he suggested.
"Interesting," she said with a smile.
"And this is a shut-up-and-enjoy-it kiss," he said, pulling her closer to him.
He caught her up in a long, deep, searching kiss. Elizabeth melted into him, all wrapped up in his warmth and his scent and his closeness. She was so content at that moment she could have stayed there all day. When he finally broke away, she cuddled closer to him, pressing her cheek into his chest.
"I love you," she murmured.
He kissed the top of her head. "Some truce, huh?"
"More like a surrender," she joked.
"On both sides, of course," Todd added. "Hey, Liz?"
She looked up, resting her chin on his shoulder.
"Yeah?"
"I love you, too."
The words sent a pleasant tingle through her chest.
"I know," she replied. "Can I get another one of those shut-up-and-enjoy-it things?" she asked, grinning. "That was good."
Todd didn't hesitate to oblige.
***
Elizabeth felt as if she were floating as she and Todd strolled hand in hand back toward the school. He opened the back door for her and she slipped inside just as the bell rang to end the period. As she and Todd turned toward their lockers, she was in such a blissful fog she didn't even notice she was being pursued until someone snatched her arm from behind, plummeting her back to earth.
"Liz! Didn't you hear me calling you?"
Jessica gripped Elizabeth's wrist so tightly she was cutting off the circulation to Elizabeth's hand. She
was out of breath from running, and her eyes shone with excitement. Elizabeth looked up at Todd, bewildered. She was used to Jessica's whiplash-inducing mood changes, but this was a new record. Being around Jessica was like constantly being strapped into a roller coaster. Two class periods and she had gone from raving mad to blissfully psyched.
"Well? What do you want, Jess?" Elizabeth asked her sister coolly, refusing to let her get away with it.
"I'm kind of busy."
Jessica rolled her eyes. "Oh, don't be all mad at me," she said. "I'm sorry I lost it before. I didn't mean it. I was just surprised and upset about the test. You know me."
"A little too well," Elizabeth said.
Jessica released Elizabeth's arm and stepped back, indignant. "God! I said I was sorry. You don't have to be all rude about it!"
Elizabeth bit her lip to keep from laughing in her sister's face. "So is that why you stopped us?" she asked impatiently. "To apologize?"
"Uh, well... not exactly," Jessica replied, having the sense, at least, to blush. "You're never going to believe this! They're going to give me another
chance to take the test. Mr. Russo said he could tell how sick I was on Monday and he figured that was why I crashed and burned. Can you believe it?"
"Really?" Elizabeth asked, so surprised she forgot she was angry.
"Yeah! Were you sick on Monday?" Jessica asked, her brows knitting.
"No. Just upset. I'd just broken up with Todd, remember?" Elizabeth said. Her sister's short memory was almost as legendary as her mood swings.
"Oh, yeah. Right," Jessica said with a wave of her hand. "Well that looks like it's all worked out, huh?" she added, noting Elizabeth's and Todd's entwined fingers.
"Looks like," Todd replied, amused.
"That's great that you can take the test again, Jess," Elizabeth said.
"Great? It's incredible!" Jessica trilled.
"And in case you were wondering, I forgive you," Elizabeth added. "Even though you don't really deserve it."
Jessica laughed. "Oh, please. You know I never mean the things I say when I get mad. I was just
letting off steam. I know you'd never sabotage me on purpose."
Elizabeth felt Todd's grip on her hand tighten and she knew what he was thinking-that Jessica had purposely tried to sabotage their relationship at the beginning of the year. But she was grateful that he managed not to voice his thoughts. The last thing she could handle right then was another Jessica versus Todd standoff.
"Well, you'd better study this time," Elizabeth warned her sister. "If you fail, I don't think they're going to let you take it over again."
"Yes, Mom," Jessica said.
"So we're back together... you're back together...," Todd said, swinging his and Liz's hands back and forth. "I think we should celebrate. Maybe ice cream at Casey's after practice?"
"I am so there!" Jessica said enthusiastically. "I have been craving their mocha almond, like, all week. Where should I meet--"
"Oh, that's too bad that you can't come with us, Jess," Todd interrupted, feigning disappointment. Elizabeth pressed her lips together to keep from laughing at the mischievous glint in his eyes, not to
mention the confused expression on Jessica's face.
"But I know how it is when you've got a lot of studying to do. You have to make the hard sacrifices."
He tugged on Elizabeth's hand and led her away.
"I'll bring you back something to go!" she called over her shoulder to her sister. "Hopefully it won't melt on the way."
"Thanks a lot," Jessica said sarcastically, glowering at them as they went.
"Don't mention it!" Elizabeth sang out.
She and Todd both laughed as she settled into the crook of his arm and they turned the corner on their way to class.
***
The beach was packed by the time Todd and Elizabeth arrived on Saturday morning. Luckily, Enid and George--who had come into town from boarding school for the competition-had saved them a place near the water where the view was unobstructed. Now all Todd and Liz had to do was find them in the crowd-no easy task considering all the beach umbrellas and sun tents blocking their view of the shoreline.
"There are too many people here," Elizabeth said into her cell as she and Todd wove their way
around beach blankets and chairs. Elizabeth stepped on some poor woman's hand and, as she turned to apologize, tripped over a little kid with a bucket and a shovel. "Sorry! Sorry!" she murmured. "Enid, give me something to go on before I maul anyone else."
"I see you!" Enid's voice rang in her ear.
"Okay, well that doesn't help me," Elizabeth joked.
"Sorry. Here. I'm waving that big straw hat my grandmother gave me."
Elizabeth scanned the throng near the water and saw the hat waving manically in the air.
"There they are!" she told Todd, relieved.
"Finally," Todd muttered. "I was about to pack it in."
By the time they dropped their things in the sand next to their friends, Elizabeth had to take a deep breath to calm her frazzled nerves. It worked quickly, though, what with the clear blue sky, the salty Pacific air, and the buzz of excitement around her. Coming in off the water was a light breeze, which would keep the salivating crowd from getting too hot. It was the perfect day for the
competition. Elizabeth yanked her notebook and pencils out of her bag to start making some notes about the atmosphere.
"I thought you guys would never get here," Enid said, dropping down on her butt next to Elizabeth on the cotton blanket.
"I know. Thanks for holding some space for us. Looks like you've been here awhile," she added, noting the hot pink of Enid's shoulders. She yanked out her SPF 45 lotion and handed it to her friend. "Here. Put some of this on before you start looking like a cooked lobster."
"Am I red?" Enid asked, alarmed, checking over her skin. "I was trying to get a little tan."
"Liz is right. You're looking more boiled than tanned," George joked.
Enid grumbled and slathered on some of Elizabeth's lotion, then jammed her spaceship-sized hat on her head. "I hate UV rays. It's like they're conspiring to keep me pasty."
"Check it out. The surfers are paddling out for their practice runs," Todd said, looking at the waves. He whistled in appreciation. "Man, those swells couldn't be more perfect. It's like
the ocean knew this competition was happening today."
" 'The ocean knew'?" Elizabeth said with a laugh. "How very Zen of you, Todd."
"Well, I have been spending a lot of time with Will lately," Todd said.
"Speaking of Will, is he even here?" Elizabeth asked.
"Haven't seen him," Enid answered.
Elizabeth scanned the horizon, trying to pick out his familiar blond hair among the surfers in the water. Unfortunately, a few of them had long blond hair and she couldn't find Will. She turned back to the beach instead.
"Hey. Isn't that Sonny Callahan over there with Lila?" she asked, pointing toward the lifeguard's chair.
"Yeah," Todd said with a scoff. "Guess he's too good to warm up."
The dark-haired surfer didn't look the least bit tense or concerned as he straddled his board, waxing it with slow circular motions. Lila, meanwhile, chattered away, looking like a sophisticated surf groupie in her white bathing suit and colorful
sarong. Elizabeth could just imagine what Lila was saying. Knowing her, she was probably promising Sonny that her daddy would sponsor him if he won. She had always been big on throwing her father's money around to get attention from guys. And girls, for that matter.
"I really hope Cara wasn't right about Will," Enid said, smoothing some lotion onto her legs. "It would suck if he didn't show."
"Didn't show?" Todd asked, turning his attention from the waves for the first time. "She said that?"
"Apparently everyone was saying that," Elizabeth told him. "She said he was depressed or something about Sonny. That he hadn't left his room all week and wasn't going to make the competition."
"Give me a break. He's going to be here," Todd said, yanking his Gladiators football T-shirt off and tossing it onto his towel. Elizabeth was momentarily distracted by the sight of her boyfriend's perfect chest.
"How do you know?" George asked.
Elizabeth blinked and eyed Todd suspiciously.
"Yeah. How do you know?" she asked, shoving herself up from the blanket. "Todd, do you have some
inside info you're not telling me? Because you watched me call him ten times last night and you saw how frustrating that was. If you know something-"
"Okay! Okay!" Todd said, raising both hands in surrender. "I might know a little something."
Elizabeth felt as if she were about to burst from curiosity. "Well? What is it? Is he coming? Has he been depressed? Sick? What?"
"I could tell you, but then it would mess up my surprise," Todd teased, knocking Elizabeth's shoulder with his own.
"Your surprise? What do you have to do with this?" she demanded.
Todd grinned. "You'll find out soon enough."
Elizabeth groaned and tipped her head back.
"Guys," she said to Enid.
"I know. No one will ever figure them out," Enid deadpanned.
A bullhorn blared across the beach, signaling all the surfers in from their practice runs. Instantly, dozens of boards turned toward the shore. Sonny Callahan got up and zipped his wet suit, blowing right by Lila without a word as he made his way to the big blue tent at the center of the beach.
"All surfers, please report to the main tent for final check-in. The first heat will begin in fifteen minutes!" the announcer called out.
"Whatever's going on with him, Will had better get here soon if he wants to compete," George said.
Elizabeth's heart started to pound with anticipation. Up and down the beach she spotted the SVH faithful, all of them scanning the crowd, murmuring under their breath. As the surfers trailed from the tent one by one with their competition numbers, the noise level escalated. Where was Will? After all those years of training and everyone pinning their hopes on him, was he really just going to bail?
"I can't take this," Elizabeth muttered, shielding her eyes as she looked up the beach.
"He has three minutes," George said, glancing at his watch. "Maybe Sonny had some kind of surf mafia kidnap him or something."
"Now, that would be a good story, Liz," Enid joked.
"If he doesn't show up, everyone is going to be crushed," Elizabeth said, glaring at her irritatingly silent boyfriend. Todd simply shrugged in response.
The crowd waited in suspense, necks craning as they searched for any sign of Will Chase. Elizabeth had all but given up hope and was already trying to think up a new angle for her story when a ripple of applause started at the far end of the beach by the parking lot.
"Is it him?" she asked, standing on her tiptoes.
"I can't see anything," Enid replied, jumping up as well.
The cheers worked their way down the beach until they grew to a deafening roar. Finally, the sea of bodies parted and Elizabeth caught sight of Will trotting toward the main tent, a gleaming new surfboard tucked under one arm. Elizabeth was surprised at how relieved she felt. But the last thing she wanted was to see that cocky Sonny Callahan win without so much as a challenge.
"Finally!" Todd said, clapping his hands. "I was beginning to wonder if my board would ever have a crack at those waves."
"Your board?" Elizabeth blurted out.
She glanced at Will just as he disappeared into the tent, random hands slapping his back as he went. Sure enough, she recognized the yellow and
blue surfboard that was usually propped up against the wall in Todd's room. While Todd liked to surf every once in a while, he wasn't an avid wave-chaser like some people, so when his uncle had given him the professional-grade board, he'd been afraid to take it out. Afraid he might deck and hurt himself and the board. So it had sat in his room untouched for the last year.
Todd grinned at Liz's incredulous expression.
"Well, you know I was never going to use the thing and it was such a waste with it just sitting there collecting dust. Then Will and I were talking one day and he said he'd always wanted a Tore, but he couldn't afford a custom board. I told him to come over and check mine out, so he did, and he loved it."
"So you gave it to him?" Elizabeth asked.
"I would have, but he wanted to pay for it, so we made a deal," Todd replied, rubbing his hands together. "That was how I got the rest of the money for my Ducati."
Suddenly, Elizabeth remembered Todd and Will's cryptic conversation from the last time they had all been at the beach. And it had been
Monday-the last time Will had been seen at SVH-when Todd had gleefully announced that he finally had enough cash for his dream motorcycle. It all fell into place.
"So that's what you guys were talking about," she said slowly.
"Yep," Todd said with a self-satisfied grin.
"But that still doesn't explain why he was absent all week," Enid pointed out.
"Oh, he cut school so he could practice on the new board," Todd replied.
"You knew this all week and you didn't tell me?" Elizabeth exclaimed, whacking Todd's arm with her reporter's pad.
"Ow! Well, first of all, we weren't talking most of the week, remember?" he said, causing Elizabeth to blush. "And secondly, Will swore me to secrecy. He didn't want it, oh, I don't know, ending up on the school's Web site that he wasn't really sick. He could have gotten in trouble."
"I wouldn't have reported it if he didn't want me to," Elizabeth grumbled, crossing her arms over her stomach.
Her three friends eyed one another dubiously.
"Yeah, right," they all said in unison, cracking themselves up.
"Whatever," Elizabeth said, her face burning. But she didn't argue the point any further. She knew as well as they did that if something that newsworthy had dropped into her lap, she would have had to report it. Otherwise, she wouldn't be a real reporter.
"And we're ready for the first heat!" the announcer called out, stealing the attention of the crowd. "Competing in this heat, Johnny Perez, Dustin Hallgren, Gavin McGee, Sonny Callahan, and Sweet Valley's own Will Chase!"
The crowd roared at the mention of Will's name.
"The competitors will enter the water at the sound of the horn."
Virtual silence took over the beach. Elizabeth held her breath. Then the horn sounded and she shouted along with the rest of the fans. The surfers ran forward and dove into the waves, paddling out to the breakers.
Will caught the first good wave. He popped up on his board effortlessly and cut a zigzag through the glassy curl, taking Elizabeth's breath away. She scribbled a few notes as Will rode the wave
smoothly to shore without incident and started to paddle back in. Sonny caught the next: wave. He was good too, but if Elizabeth had been a judge, she would have awarded more points to Will for sheer style.
The other surfers came in. One of them fell head over heels and everyone on the shore gasped, then held their breath until he resurfaced. Another had his wave die on him halfway to shore and had to paddle back out again quickly. The third did fine but had nowhere near the skill of Will or Sonny.
After their second waves, Elizabeth was convinced. She told herself that she had to be impartial, but no matter how she weighed them, Will was far better than this infamous Sonny Callahan. She simply couldn't see what was so great about the guy. He had no flair. He was all substance, no style.
She made some notes in her book, feeling confident that Will had outshone Sonny. Still, it was just her opinion. She knew that some judges favored speed and power over grace and showmanship. There was no way of guessing which of the two had racked up more points.
"It's so obvious," Lila Fowler said from a few
feet away. "Sonny makes Will look like a chimp on a longboard. He has so much more finesse. I hope it translates on our date later."
Elizabeth's lip curled in disgust. Way to be loyal to your classmate, Lila, she thought.
After two hours and several heats, Elizabeth was still sure that Will and Sonny were the top two contenders. A couple of other guys from SVH had shown up and done well, but none had anything even close to the skills of the two leaders. Finally, it was time for the judges to tabulate their points. Elizabeth sat back on the sand with her friends while they waited, but she could hardly stand being so still.
"What do you guys think?" she asked.
"Will. No doubt," Todd answered instantly.
"Yeah, and you're not biased or anything," Enid joked.
"You don't think he pulled it out?" Todd asked in an accusatory way.
"No! No, I do," Enid replied. "Just messing with you. Touchy, touchy," she joked to Elizabeth.
Before long, the judges announced that they had their winners. Everyone scrambled to their feet to
hear the announcement and see the surfers come up to accept their prizes.
"In fifth place, with one hundred fifty points, Dirk Hallstead," the announcer called out.
The crowd went crazy as Dirk strolled up to accept his trophy. Dirk was a senior at SVH and had never competed before. Fifth was a huge accomplishment for him.
"In fourth place, with one hundred sixty points, Johnny Perez."
More applause. Elizabeth realized she was holding her breath and forced herself to inhale. She wrote down the names and the scores in her notebook, even though she could have gotten them online later. It was something to do while she waited for the big news.
"In third place, with one hundred eighty points, Gary Wallace!"
The crowd cheered loudly. Gary had been around for years and was an old fan fave.
"All right. This is it," Todd said, his voice tense.
"In second place, with two hundred thirty points..." The announcer fumbled with the microphone and there was a loud peal of feedback that
scraped along Elizabeth's nerves like fingernails on a blackboard. Everyone around her groaned. "Sorry about that, people," the announcer said. "In second place, Sonny Callahan. And our champion, with two hundred forty points and a bid to the state championship is... Will Chase!"
"Yes!" Elizabeth cheered as wild applause erupted around her. Todd grabbed her in a hug. A few of Will's more ardent friends and fans rushed forward to congratulate him. Before long they had hoisted him up on their shoulders, seated on his board, to parade him and his trophy through the crowd. The normally subdued Will raised his fist in the air and slapped hands with his well-wishers down below.
"So, what's your headline, Liz?" Enid asked giddily.
"I'm thinking...'Chase Can't Be Caught,'" Elizabeth replied. "Something like that."
"I like it!" Todd said, wrapping his arm around her waist.
"Check out the sore loser," George said.
Elizabeth followed his gaze. Sonny Callahan was reaming out the judges, his face red as spittle flew from his lips. Liz was happy to note that The
Oracle's photographer, Allen Walters, was getting a few shots of his display of poor sportsmanship, as well as a few choice ones of a triumphant Will. Just like that, Sonny's aura of confidence was blown and even Lila no longer seemed interested. Although for her it was probably more about the spittle than anything else.
In the midst of all the celebrating;, Cara found Elizabeth and her friends.
"Hey! Have you seen Jess? I can't believe she'd miss this," Cara said.
Elizabeth tried hard to hide her smirk. "Jessica couldn't make it. She wasn't feeling well."
"Are you kidding? For an event this big, that girl would rally through mono."
"True, but she wasn't about to show up here with ugly welts all over her," Elizabeth replied. "She does have a reputation to protect."
Cara's pert nose scrunched up in disgust. "Ew. What's wrong with her?"
"Just a raging case of poison oak," Elizabeth replied.
She didn't add that Jessica had caught it during her late-night trek through the woods with Scott
the past weekend. She was, after all, the only person in whom Jessica had confided the true story.
"Omigosh! She must be so upset! Missing this and the party tonight! She was so looking forward to it!" Cara said, briefly covering her mouth in shock. Then she leaned toward Elizabeth and lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. "So does she look really bad? Is it, like, all over her face?"
Elizabeth laughed. The fact that Cara was supposedly Jessica's best friend wouldn't even stop her from trying to get all the detailed dirt.
"She'll be fine," Elizabeth said, recalling Jessica's howls of rage when she'd realized that the small rash on her leg had blossomed into a full-blown case of itchiness everywhere. "I'm sure by Monday she'll be perfectly ready to function in normal society again."
Cara smirked. "That's so good to hear," she said. Then she turned and ran off toward her friends, no doubt to spread the story of Jessica Wakefield's hideous disfigurement.
"You could have played it down a little more," Todd scolded her as he watched Cara disappear into the crowd.
"I've done enough protecting of Jessica for one week," Elizabeth replied with a smile. She saw Lila cover her mouth and laugh at Cara's report as Caroline Pearce, another notorious gossip, leaned in to hear the news. "I'd say my work here is done."
DON'T MISS THE WAKEFIELD TWINS' CONTINUING STORY IN
FRANCINE PASCAL
SWEET VALLEY HIGH
Dangerous Love
TURN THE PAGE FOR A PREVIEW.
[Blank Page]
***
"I don't understand why you suddenly have to take over the Jeep again," Jessica Wakefield grumbled, dropping into the passenger seat of the red auto she shared with her twin sister, Elizabeth.
"Where's Todd? I was getting used to driving myself to school."
"Todd has... other plans," Elizabeth replied, placing her bag in the back and blatantly avoiding eye contact. "And besides, I need the car after school. I'm covering a story for The Oracle."
Elizabeth slid into the driver's seat, checked all
the mirrors, and started the car. Instantly, the radio blared to life and Elizabeth jumped in surprise. She hit the Power button to silence the loud dance music Jessica had been listening to on every ride to school for the past two weeks.
"Does it have to be so loud?" Elizabeth admonished her, hand on her heart.
Jessica rolled her eyes. "Whatever, Grandma."
She turned the rearview mirror to her side and checked her makeup. Jessica had been running late and had dashed out of the Wakefield's split-level house without having time to perform her usual ritual in front of the bathroom mirror. Not that she really needed it. With her tan skin, naturally blond hair, big blue-green eyes, and athletic body, Jessica could go entirely without product and still be the hottest girl at Sweet Valley High. Or so her friends were always telling her.
"So, what's the big story?" Jessica asked. She actually had zero interest in her sister's journalistic pursuits, but they had to do something to fill the silence. She rummaged in her leather bag for her makeup kit and applied some blush to her cheeks as Elizabeth pulled out of the driveway.
"Can I please have the mirror back?" Elizabeth said testily, readjusting the rearview while Jessica was in mid-brush-swipe.
"God. You're obnoxious this morning," Jessica said. "So are you going to tell me, or not?"
"Tell you what?" Elizabeth asked as she came to the stop sign at the end of Calico Drive.
Jessica sighed impatiently. "What the story is about."
"Oh. I'm covering the reopening of the Valley Diner," Elizabeth said. "I figure I'll be able to pull double duty, since I'm running low on info for The Insider this week and a lot of people from school are going to be there."
"Yeah. All the losers," Jessica said, wrinkling her nose. "Everyone knows that Casa is the cool hangout now. The only people that are gonna be at the opening of that fat fest are the freshmen who are too intimidated to come to Casa del Sol, and the chunkies who have been salivating for the diner's chocolate milkshakes and cheese fries."
"One of your favorite meals until the place closed for renovations, as I recall," Elizabeth pointed out. "Are you calling yourself a chunky?"
"Liz! Take that back!" Jessica wailed, horrified. "I'm not chunky!"
"Hey, you said it, not me," Elizabeth replied with a short laugh.
Jessica slumped in her seat and stared petulantly out the window at the Pacific Ocean in the distance, the waves glinting in the sun. Even though it was only eight o'clock, the air was already pleasantly warm and a breeze ruffled the palm trees. This is so unfair, Jessica thought. First Liz commandeers the car keys, and then she refuses to put the top down so as not to mess up her responsible ponytail; then she vetoes my music, and now she's picking on me. She could have killed Liz's boyfriend, Todd Wilkins, for having "other plans."
"Hey, Liz. It's totally gorgeous out. Let's stop and take the top down," Jessica said.
"No. We'll be late," Elizabeth snapped.
"But I-"
"Jess! Give it up already!"
Jessica's jaw dropped. "Okay. What is with you this morning? It's a beautiful day and I'm just trying to have some fun before we're stuck in class for the rest of it! Why do you keep biting my head off?"
Elizabeth simply glowered out the windshield, and the answer hit Jessica like a brick to the head. Something was up between Elizabeth and Todd. Not only was he suddenly not picking Liz up for school, but a rift between the two members of SVH's über-couple was pretty much the only thing that could put her sister in this foul of a mood.
"Liz, is something going on with you and Todd?" Jessica asked.
"What? Why do you say that?" Elizabeth asked, her voice tense. Tense enough that Jessica knew she had hit the nail right on the head.
"What happened? Did you guys break up?" Jessica asked, concerned. Even though she often teased Elizabeth about her lovey-dovey relationship with the school's basketball and football star, she knew that Todd made Elizabeth happy, which made Jessica happy. Of course, if he hurt her sister, she would have to kill him, but that remained to be seen.
"No. Nothing like that," Elizabeth replied quickly, turning onto Main Street.
"But there's something," Jessica prompted.
Elizabeth heaved a sigh and looked at Jessica out of the corner of her eye. "He got a motorcycle."
"What?" Jessica blurted out, turning sideways in her seat. "No. He didn't. He's not that stupid."
"Apparently, he is," Elizabeth said through her teeth. Then she quickly backtracked. "I mean, he's not stupid. It's just... he's wanted one forever. He doesn't see them the same way we do. He thinks it's just going to be so much fun riding it up and down the coast...."
Jessica shook her head. If Todd thought a motorcycle was fun, then he was totally clueless. Motorcycles, in her opinion, were nothing but death traps.
"Anyway, he's driving it to school today," Elizabeth finished.
"Sometimes I really don't get that guy," Jessica said. "He's always walking around, talking about how much he loves you, but then he goes and puts his life at risk by buying this thing that he knows you can never be a part of. He didn't sell his car, did he? You guys will never go out alone together again!"
"I don't think he's sold his car yet," Elizabeth said. "And, Jess, he's not as heartless as you think
he is. He doesn't know about me not being allowed to get on a motorcycle."
"What? Why not?" Jessica asked.
"Because I didn't tell him yet. He thinks I'm as excited about the bike as he is."
"What?" Jessica cried. "Liz! You have to be kidding me! How could you?"
Lying was not a foreign concept to Jessica. She often stretched the truth when it served her purposes. She just couldn't believe that Liz had felt the need to lie about this, of all things, especially considering that lying usually was a last resort for her super-honest and respectable sister. Jessica would have expected her to be particularly forthcoming about this issue, considering what a huge one it was for their family. Jessica would love to see every motorcycle in the world banned from ever hitting pavement, and she had been sure Elizabeth felt the same way. Until now.
"Liz, you're not going to get on that thing, are you? I mean, after what happened to Rex-"
"I know, Jess. And trust me, I have no plans to go anywhere near the bike. We made a pact, remember?" Elizabeth said firmly. "I mean, honestly, it
makes me sick to even think of Todd driving around on one of those things, but what was I supposed to do? He's been dreaming of buying a motorcycle since he was a little kid. I couldn't just shatter his dream."
"Oh, so you'd rather he shatter his body, then?"
Elizabeth smirked sadly.
"What?" Jessica said.
"You sounded like me just then," Elizabeth pointed out.
"Well, good, for once," Jessica said, crossing her arms over her chest. "I just hope you still find it amusing when Todd ends up like Rex."
"Jessica, don't say that," Elizabeth snapped, tears welling from her eyes. "Never say that."
"Sorry. I just... God, I hate even thinking about it," Jessica said.
Three years ago, after months of begging, the twins' aunt and uncle had finally caved and given their cousin Rex a motorcycle for his sixteenth birthday. He went out and got his license and bought a helmet and took every precaution, just like the responsible guy he was. Everything was fine until three weeks later, when he lost control of the
bike and was killed in a head-on collision. His death had been a devastating shock to everyone, but especially to Jessica, who had adored Rex almost as much as she did her older brother, Steven. After the funeral, Jessica's parents had made all three Wakefield children swear that they would never get on a motorcycle, and they had all agreed. It was one of the few household rules that Jessica obeyed willingly.
"I know, Jess, but I couldn't tell Todd not to get the bike. I'm not going to be one of those girls who goes around telling her boyfriend what to do," Elizabeth said as they approached Sweet Valley High. "It's just not me."
"Even if it means you have to worry about him all the time?" Jessica demanded. "Even if telling him about Rex could, like, save his life?"
"He would have gotten the bike anyway," Elizabeth told her sister. "You know how guys are. He would have just said 'That's horrible, but it's not going to happen to me.' They all think they're indestructible or something."
"So what are you going to do when he asks you to go for a ride?" Jessica asked, curious.
"He already did. He wanted to pick me up this morning," Elizabeth replied.
"And? How did you get out of it?"
"I told him I felt a cold coming on and it wouldn't be good to expose myself to the wind," Elizabeth said.
Jessica smirked. "Oh. So that's why you don't want to put the top down. You're backing up your lie. Not bad, Liz."
"Well, I did learn from the best," Elizabeth said with a sidelong glance.
"Ha-ha. Well, that's fine for today, but what are you going to do tomorrow? Or the next day? Develop a permanent cough?"
Elizabeth's hands gripped the steering wheel.
"Look, I know I'm going to have to tell him the truth eventually. I just... I don't want to disappoint him."
Jessica studied Elizabeth's face. She looked genuinely distressed. "You know, Todd might not be my favorite person in the world, but I know he loves you. He's not going to let some stupid bike mess up your relationship."
"You think?" Liz asked uncertainly.
"I know," Jessica said with confidence. She shook her hair back as Liz pulled into the SVH parking lot. "And besides, if there's one thing I'm an expert on, it's guys. And if you keep telling him you're getting a ride with someone else or you want to drive yourself, he's going to start thinking you don't like him anymore. And that would not be good."
"No, it wouldn't," Liz agreed.
"So just tell him the truth," Jessica suggested.
"And if he's a jerk about it, then dump him and find yourself a guy who's not a motorcycle maniac. There are plenty of guys at this school who drive perfectly hot cars with four wheels and airbags and everything."
Elizabeth laughed as she turned into a spot and cut the engine. "Like Danny and his Charger?" she asked with a small smile.
Jessica grinned in return. She had just started dating Danny Stauffer, a senior with a brand-new, black Dodge Charger. He was cute but kind of scrawny. Luckily, the car made up for that.
"Exactly," Jessica replied. "Maybe this is just the excuse you need to start checking out your
options." She twisted the rearview mirror toward her again and checked her hair one last time. "Good luck with Todd, but I'll start compiling a short list of worthy boyfriend candidates just in case."
Her sister rolled her eyes as Jessica hopped out of the car and strolled off toward school, wondering what Elizabeth would ever do without her.
Excerpt copyright © 2008 by Francine Pascal.
Published by Laurel-Leaf Books, an imprint of Random House Children's Books, a division of Random House, Inc.,
New York.
Originally published by Bantam Books in 1984.