Kill Marguerite and Other Stories (10 page)

You part ways with your twin in front of your locker. “Good luck,” you say. “And be careful.”

“Oh, Lizzie,” she smiles. “Don't be such a worrywart!”

You have a bad feeling about this.

Go on to the next page
.

As you're walking down the tiled hallway to math class, you hear your twin's name.

It's Lila Fowler, Jessica's best friend. She hurries to catch up with you, tossing her chestnut hair behind her shoulder. “That minidress is fabulous!” she exclaims.

The only daughter of one of the wealthier men in Sweet Valley, Lila is one of the richest and snobbiest girls in school, and you don't like her very much. But you stop and wait, faking a smile.

“Whoa,” Lila whispers. “Check out Lois Waller. She can't even fit into sweatpants anymore!”

Although you don't know Lois well, you feel sorry for the pudgy girl. You've noticed that she has clear skin and remarkable facial bone structure. If only she'd lose some weight, she'd be pretty.

Determined not to blow your cover, you search for a catty remark. “What a tub,” you say.

Lila laughs appreciatively. “Come on. We'll be late to math.” You hurry to Ms. Wyler's classroom. As you enter, Lila leans into you and whispers, “Remember the plan.”

Plan? What plan?

You take Jessica's seat in front of Ellen Riteman, who smiles and waves. Lila sits behind her. Ellen is a snob, too—not as rich or as smart as Lila, but just as nasty. Like Jessica, they're both members of the Unicorn Club. Ellen leans forward and whispers, “Don't forget.”

You narrow your eyes. What could the ‘Snob Squad' be planning now?

“Scoot to the left,” she whispers. “I can't see.”

You can't believe it. Ellen is planning on copying off ‘Jessica,' which means Lila is planning on copying off Ellen. ‘The plan' is a web of cheating, and you're caught right in its center!

As Ms. Wyler begins passing out the test, you're fuming. Jessica must have set up this ‘plan' after you'd agreed to help her with math and then conveniently ‘forgotten' to call if off. You'd like to think she was so caught up in the problem of ‘Mr. Bowman' that she did genuinely forget, but you know your twin's self-serving ways too well. How could she put you in this position?

If you deliberately fail Jessica's test, go on to the next page
.

If you do your best on the test but block Ellen's view, turn to
page 102
.

Serves her right, you think, positioning your test by the edge of your desk where Ellen has the best view. You tackle the first division problem, deliberately miscalculating the subtraction. Failing a test is surprisingly hard, you are thinking, when you hear a scream from down the hall.

It's Jessica.

Let her scream. The more you think about being set up as the center of a cheating ring, the angrier you become.

But you hate having these bad feelings about Jessica.

You hear another scream and hit the ground running. You blast into Mr. Bowman's classroom and push past all the sixth graders standing at the window with mouths agape. Outside, hovering above the soccer field, is your sister, caught in a beam of light. Jessica is being transported into a spaceship, caught in the grip of ‘Mr. Bowman,' who has revealed to the school his true alien face.

If you call the cops, turn to
page 111
.

If you climb out the window to save Jessica, turn to
page 113
.

You are doing your best to block Ellen's view, ignoring the pencil jabs in your back, when you hear a scream from down the hall.

It's Jessica!

You race down the tiled hallway and storm into Mr. Bowman's classroom, where you find Jessica holding the futuristic handheld device and staring at ‘Mr. Bowman' with horrified eyes. ‘Mr. Bowman' has ripped off his mask and is shrieking mechanically. The classroom erupts in screams.

Through the window, a beam of light has entered the classroom and is beginning to wander around the perimeter.

You grab the device from Jessica. It appears to be some kind of touch-activated transmitter. Now the beam of light is approaching you. You scan the transmitter for an off button and find a small, unobtrusive indentation the size of a thumbprint.

Hmmm.

If you press the indentation, go on to the next page
.

If you toss the device at ‘Mr. Bowman's' feet, turn to
page 104
.

Panicked, you press the button. Immediately you find yourself immobilized within a laser beam.

You feel your body being lifted, and watch as Jessica rushes toward you.

“Jess, no...!” you try to yell, but can't move your face.

Grabbing your arm, your twin tries to yank you out of the beam—but instead gets sucked right into it. Now both of you are being transported up and out of the window—and into the flying saucer!

Once inside the spaceship, you are greeted by a small band of aliens similar in appearance to the alien impersonating Mr. Bowman. Their orange eyes fierce and unblinking, they stare at you with an expression you don't understand.

“What do you want from us?” Jessica shouts.

One of the aliens steps forward and speaks in delicate clicks and clacks into another device that must, you assume, be some kind of translator. The alien presses a button, and the device relays in smooth English: “Our kind is in jeopardy. Our planet has been taken over by vice. We need a leader who can direct our citizens to live moral lives. Which one of you is Elizabeth Wakefield of Sweet Valley, California?”

You stare at your twin alarmed. Jessica returns your troubled look.

“What will happen to the one of us who isn't Elizabeth?” you ask boldly. The device translates, and the alien responds.

“We have no interest in the other one.”

If you tell them you are Jessica to ensure that your sister can live, turn to
page 105
.

If you tell them you are Elizabeth but that you will not be separated from Jessica, turn to
page 107
.

You toss the device at ‘Mr. Bowman's' feet. The beam of light freezes, then jerks forward to grab the device and ‘Mr. Bowman' with it. He shrieks mechanically as the beam lifts him out of the classroom and transports him into the spaceship. You are still catching your breath when the doors of the spaceship close and the aircraft departs.

Your classmates turn to you with pale, shocked faces.

“Jessica, you saved the day!” Amy Sutton, your best friend, cries.

“I'm Elizabeth!” you say.

“Jessica! Jessica! Jessica!” the class cheers.

No one knows who you are.

The End

“That's Elizabeth,” you say, nodding at your sister. “I'm Jessica.”

“What are you doing?” Jessica whispers. “They'll separate us!”

The translator erupts in clicks and static. The head alien nods. At this signal, two aliens advance. One seizes Jessica and the other seizes you.

You are discarded in outer space. You float around for a while, wondering where you went wrong. If only you had made different choices...

Go on to the next page
.

You have one secret weapon left that you have not used.

If you think the secret weapon is a time travel device, turn to
page 108
.

If you think it's something else, turn to
page 109
.

“I'm Elizabeth,” you say. “But I can't be Elizabeth without Jessica. I won't help you unless you keep us together.”

The translator erupts in clicks and static, and the aliens confer. Finally, one of the green creatures slides another weapon-like device out of hir belt and points it at you and your twin.

You are alone. What happened? Where did...what. You can't remember. But something about you is different.

You smile beatifically at the small group of Xandari astronauts before you. You are ready to shape their world after your image.

You are treated regally on Xandar and soon you have rehabilitated the planet.

One day you are reading in your new ‘thinking spot,' a holographic tree modeled after the one in your memory, when your xalamdak, a common Xandari pet, jumps onto your shoulder and starts scratching at the back of your neck. Huh. You've never noticed that lump. You ask a leading scientist to take a look at it. Ze pokes around in your skin and discovers some teeth, some hair... a kind of subcutaneous teratoma, ze says, converting to Human English via translator: what Human Earthlings call a parasitic twin.

That strange feeling returns, the shadow of some forgotten memory wrenching you with guilt, sorrow, unbearable psychic pain. You think of the book you are reading, shove the feeling away. It's a good book.

The scientist extracts the teratoma and places it in a radiation oven to be disintegrated.

The End

Your secret weapon is a time travel device shoved into your hand by one of the aliens before you were discarded in outer space. There appear to be multiple language settings: you revolve the cylinder until it reads EARTHLING – HUMAN – AMERICAN ENGLISH. A digital display asks you to choose a date and time.

If you would like to return to this morning and try again, turn to
page 124
.

If you would like to return to Sweet Valley a week ago, before any of this happened, turn to
page 126
.

If there are always more than two choices, turn to
page 123
.

You might as well test out the gizmo that one of the aliens stuffed into your pocket at the last minute. The device is lightweight and ridged, with three indentations. You slide three fingers into the indentations and hold your breath.

The device spits out a horizontal beam that scans your body. Your atoms bend. Your vision blurs. The next thing you know, you are inside an unfamiliar bedroom surrounded by strange—but human—girls.

Club meetings always start at five-thirty on the dot, as soon as Claudia's digital clock flips over from five twenty-nine. The clock reads five twenty-eight, so you've arrived in plenty of time. You grab Claudia's desk chair and straddle it. Mary Anne and Stacey are perched on the bed next to you, and Kristy is sitting, as usual, in the director's chair, wearing her visor.

Most of Claudia is inside her closet. She's poking her hand into every compartment of her shoe bag. You have an idea of what she might be looking for, and sure enough, when she finally backs out of the closet, she's gripping a bag of M&M's in one hand and a package of Twinkies in the other.

The Baby-sitters Club was all Kristy's idea. That's Kristy Thomas, president of the club. She's always coming up with excellent ideas, but this one has to be the best. It all started at the beginning of seventh grade. Kristy and her brothers would baby-sit for their younger brother David Michael most of the time, but when they couldn't, Mrs. Thomas would have to make a ton of phone calls to try to line up a sitter. One night as her mom was doing this, Kristy had one of her Brilliant Brainstorms. What if parents could reach a whole bunch of experienced sitters with just one call?

And so the BSC was born.

Besides being brilliant, Kristy can also be bossy at times. She's small for her age and is kind of a tomboy. She wears the same thing every day: jeans, a turtleneck, a sweater, and running shoes. Mary Anne Spier, the club secretary, has brown hair and brown eyes, just like Kristy. But while Kristy is loudmouthed and always in the spotlight, Mary Anne is extremely shy and sensitive. She and Kristy are best friends, but they are so different that you sometimes wonder why.

Claudia Kishi is the vice-president of the club and is, well...
gorgeous
. She's Japanese-American and has L-O-N-G silky black hair, a perfect complexion (despite her incurable junk-food habit), and almond-shaped eyes. Claudia's best friend is Stacey McGill—together they're the most sophisticated dressers in all of Stoneybrook. Stacey is from New York, and Claudia's an artist.

And you? You're the alternate officer, which means that you can fill in for any of the other officers if they can't make it to a meeting. You moved here from California when your parents got a divorce. Your first year in Stoneybrook was kind of rough. But you're close to your mom, and you love the house you live in—it was built in 1795 and it has a secret passage and maybe even a real ghost. Honest.

If you stay here, turn to
page 116
.

If you want to test out your secret weapon again, turn to
page 106
.

You race to Principal Davis's office to call the police. In a few moments you hear sirens! A bullhorn! Authoritative commands! Three officers have arrived on the scene. You rush to them but are rudely brushed off.

“Elizabeth Wakefield has been abducted by aliens,” goes the rumor spreading through the tiled hallways as students and teachers spill out of classrooms to watch the spaceship vanish into the sky. But you're Elizabeth Wakefield, you try to tell them. No one will listen.