SVH04-Power Play (7 page)

The battle in her head concerning Jessica's involvement with the stolen goods gave Elizabeth such a headache that it was a relief to go to the sorority meeting that night at Cara Walker's house on the hill.
At least this problem will finally be resolved,
she assured herself as she walked in a few minutes later.

The little red lacquered wooden box was already being passed around the room, and

Elizabeth hurriedly grabbed a handful of marbles and took her seat. It was so quiet the girls could all hear the sharp clack of the marbles as they were dropped into the hole in the lid, one by one.

"Suzanne Hanlon," Jessica said for Elizabeth's benefit as she watched Cara hand the lacquered box to Lila Fowler.

Lila dropped her marble in, and the little box moved on, from one pair of hands to the next, until it completed a circle and was once again in Jessica's hands.

Jessica opened the box and poured out the marbles. They were all white.

"Suzanne Hanlon is in," said Jessica, and everyone applauded.

"She's totally acceptable," Lila whispered to Elizabeth. "And you know her father has a Rolls-Royce."

Jessica had already closed the lid of the red box and was about to send it on another round.

"Robin Wilson," she said, and Elizabeth detected a sarcastic note. Jessica avoided Elizabeth's eyes, dropped her marble in, and sent the box along.

Elizabeth carefully separated the white and the black marbles in her hands, then dropped a white one in when the box came to her. She handed it on to the next girl and breathed a

sigh of relief when the box had completed its rounds.

Jessica opened the box. "Uh-oh," she said.

"What's the matter?" Lila asked, with Cara echoing her question.

Jessica reached into the box and brought out a marble between her thumb and forefinger. She held it up. "Blackball!" she said.

Astonished looks flashed across the faces of the Pi Betas as they looked around at each other.

"Robin Wilson has been blackballed!" Jessica announced. "She can't be a member of PBA."

A hushed and embarrassed silence followed her pronouncement. Jessica and her sister had wanted Robin Wilson in, and now somebody had blackballed her. Sure, Robin was a loser. But who would dare to cross Jessica this way?

"Who could it be?" the girls whispered among themselves, silently considering each other's possible motives.

A stunned Elizabeth sat perfectly still, consumed with anger. There was only one person who would have the nerve to keep Robin out. Jessica!

The other girls were now crowding around Jessica, voicing their sympathy over her friend Robin's exclusion from the sorority. And Jessica, it seemed to Elizabeth, was taking it very well. Wonderfully well.

"Who could have done such a thing?" Elizabeth hissed sarcastically at Jessica when no one else was listening.

Jessica smiled. "I can't imagine. But it's a secret vote--and nobody can challenge a black- ball. It's just one of those unfortunate things."

Already the whisper was circulating. How would Robin take The bad news? By now everyone knew that her whole existence depended on making PBA. There could be a really awful scene if she found out at the next general meeting, when membership announcements were usually made.

The expression on Jessica's lovely face was that of a martyr facing the lions in the Roman Colosseum. "I'll tell her personally," she said oh-so-bravely. "She's my friend. It's my responsibility."

"I'll go with you," volunteered Elizabeth quickly. "Somebody had better be there to pick up the pieces."

Robin hurried eagerly into Casey's Place in le Valley Mall that evening to keep the date with Jessica. "I'll come right away," she had gushed when Jessica called.

Robin headed for their booth as soon as she came in. "I ran right out the door," she bubbled,

her face flushed with excitement. "I just couldn't wait to get here."

It was only when Robin sat down that she noticed that Jessica was not smiling, although she certainly wasn't grim. She was composed.

"Robin, I want you to know first of all that we will always be friends," Jessica said.

Robin's face began to change. "What--?"

"We will still be the best of friends. If I need somebody to keep me company while I run errands, I'll still ask you first."

"Jessica, what are you saying?"

"Robin, you were blackballed," said Jessica in a tone that reminded Elizabeth of the purr of a satisfied cat.

Robin was as white as chalk. As Jessica's message sank in, her eyes widened into a stare filled with pain, and long-suppressed anger.

"But they can't!" she screamed, tears of frustration falling from her eyes.

"I know you feel it leaves you out of every thing worth having at Sweet Valley High," said Jessica sweetly, "but I'll still be your best friend.'

Elizabeth couldn't believe her ears. "Oh, Jess shut up!"

"What? Shut up?" Jessica cried plaintively.

"It can't be happening," Robin cried. "I did what you asked. I don't deserve this!"

"Some things were just not meant to be,'

Jessica said with such mock sweetness that Elizabeth thought she was going to be sick.

Elizabeth reached over the table, trying to find some words of comfort for Robin, but Robin pulled away, threw herself against the back of the booth, and glared at them wild-eyed.

"Don't touch me! I can't stand it!" She slid out of the booth, stood up, lurched against a chair, and looked back at the twins. Her face was contorted with suffering and fury.

"There isn't any reason for me to go on," she said hoarsely, and then she rushed out, knocking over a chair.

"Are you satisfied?" Elizabeth snapped at her sister.

"Oh, for heaven's sake, Liz," Jessica replied curtly. "She didn't mean what it sounded like."

Elizabeth got up. "I'm not so sure, Jessica, people can just take so much. ..."

Eight

For the rest of the evening Elizabeth tried continually--and unsuccessfully--to get in touch with Robin. "What happened?" Robin's mother pleaded

when Elizabeth called her.

"The Pi Betas blackballed her, Mrs. Wilson." "Oh, no! She was counting on it so much." "I know. I'm the one who sponsored her." "How can young people be so cruel?" Mrs.

Wilson said softly.

"I really don't know, Mrs. Wilson," Elizabeth answered truthfully. Why Jessica, Lila, and Cara would work so hard to keep Robin out of their

sorority bewildered her. And that Robin would let herself be humiliated to join such a bunch of mobs seemed just as mysterious.

Elizabeth was sitting in the
Oracle
office the next day, her fingers resting quietly on the typewriter keys. She was trying to think of what to write, but one question kept intruding:
Why
is
it some people can enjoy being so mean?

"Five dollars for your thoughts." It was Roger Rollins, the newspaper adviser, who had noticed her staring at the blank paper in her type writer.

No response.

"OK, so forget the attempt at inflation humor," he said. "What's on your mind, Liz?"

"Mr. Collins, why would people who have just about everything--good looks, popularity, money--why would people like that want to hurt somebody else by excluding them?"

"Excluding them?" asked Mr. Collins. "How?"

"From an 'in' group. A sorority."

"Well, Elizabeth, what do you think?"

"I just can't understand it. As a matter of fact, as far as I'm concerned,
those
people are the deprived ones. Where's their kindness, their compassion? It's almost as if they're afraid they'll fall apart if they help anyone."

"What do you mean, Elizabeth?"

"Well, maybe that's the only way they can feel superior. Mr. Rollins, sometimes I think the only way they keep themselves special is by keeping other people out."

"Hmm. Sounds like an article for
The Oracle.'
Mr. Collins smiled encouragingly at Elizabeth and walked out of the office. Again, resting her fingers on the keys, a tentative Elizabeth finally began to work.

She found herself writing a spirited article titled, "Snobbery Is Alive and Well at Sweet Valley High." It took her only an hour to complete, and she immediately gave it to Pemr Ayala, the editor.

Elizabeth knew it was a public apology to Robin Wilson and a slap at the Three Witches of Pi Beta Alpha.

The day the article appeared, Elizabeth proudly read it several times. She thoroughly enjoyed the sour faces on some of the Pi Betas.

Her only disappointment was that Robin wasn't in school to see it; nobody had seen or talked to Robin since the blackball. Although Elizabeth had tried to reach her on the phone, Robin's mother kept insisting she was away and would

probably be in touch when she got back. Elizabeth didn't like the sound of it.

Nor did she like the thought of discussing the awful mess with Jessica. She knew she'd get nowhere. But her "Snobbery at Sweet Valley" article brought things to a head. The day it came out, Jessica stormed into Elizabeth's room, waving
The Oracle,
fire flashing from her eyes.

"How could you?" she demanded. "Everybody in the entire state of California knows you're talking about me!"

"Well, at least I got that part clear." Elizabeth smiled in a way she knew would infuriate her sister.

"But we're
not
snobs!" Jessica screamed. "It's not our fault that everybody wants to join us. We can't take in everybody--we can't take in unsuitable people."

"So why did you encourage Robin and then knife her in the back, Jessica? Would you kindly tell me that?"

"I
encouraged her? If I told her once, I told her eight hundred and thirty-seven times that blimps were not popular people!"

"Yes, you insulted her all the time. But you made her believe you would take her in sooner or later."

"That's not fair, Elizabeth Wakefield Buttinski!

Who sponsored that fatso? Who put her name up?"

Elizabeth felt her face getting red and her arguments becoming scrambled. As always, Jessica could tell when she was feeling defensive. She stepped up her attack.

"You put her up! You--Miss Goody-Goody!"

"Yes, but you let her believe she was your best friend," Elizabeth countered.

"Accepting her offer to carry my cleaning was hardly encouraging her."

"I'm sorry, Jessica, but it was just horrible of you to tell her she had to get a date with Bruce Patman!"

"Is that so?" Jessica said circling her sister like a lion moving in on its prey. "Is that so? That's what really got her hopes up, isn't it? Bruce taking her to the dance?"

"Yes--I guess so."

"You guess so? And who put the fix in with Bruce Patman? Huh, double-dealer?"

"What do you mean?"

"What do I mean?" Sarcasm was positively dripping from Jessica's tongue. "Elizabeth Wakefield, don't pretend with me. I happen to know that
you
conned Bruce Patman into taking Robin to the dance.
You
did all this--not us!"

"Who told you that?" Elizabeth managed to say weakly.

"I got it almost straight from the horse's mouth. A thoroughbred named Bruce Patman told Cara."

What a fool I was to trust a rat like Bruce,
Elizabeth thought. Well, at least there was the small satisfaction of knowing her ego-stroking article about him had never seen the light of day. She'd torn it to shreds before it ever went to print.

"He's not going to let himself look like a total fool, even though we both know he's the biggest one Sweet Valley High has ever seen. Everybody knows he took Robin to the dance because you talked him into it. My own sister."

"Listen, Jessica, maybe I shouldn't have meddled. But I'm worried about Robin. Nobody's seen her for days. What's happening to her?"

"I don't know, and I don't care. She's not our problem anymore. We're all snobs. Remember? And if that lardo does anything to make me look bad, I'll never do another favor for her-- ever!" And Jessica stormed out of the room.

Finally, the next day Elizabeth got a phone call from Mrs. Wilson, to let her know about Robin. She'd gone to Los Angeles to visit an aunt, but she was back.

"How is she, Mrs. Wilson?"

"I can't really say, Elizabeth. I'm only calling because I knew you were worried, and it seems

my daughter doesn't want to speak with anyone."

"Can I at least try?"

"I especially don't think she wants to have anything to do with you or anyone else in your sorority. I don't mean to hurt you, dear, but I must respect Robin's feelings." And she hung up.

Elizabeth spotted Robin after school the next day and immediately noticed a change. Gone was the open, friendly face and the eager, quick step. Robin wore no makeup now and was dressed in a drab blue tent dress that seemed a little too big for her. As she walked, Robin looked only straight ahead, as though the rest of the world didn't exist for her. She moved through the corridors of Sweet Valley High as though she were a stranger there. The enthusiastic old Robin Wilson seemed to have vanished.

"Robin, I want to talk to you," Elizabeth pleaded, catching up with her in the front of the school. Robin turned to face her with a look that seemed to cut right through her.

Elizabeth shivered.

"Yes?" Robin said in a sharp, challenging tone. She stopped and stood perfectly still, staring

with unwavering eyes at Elizabeth, who began to feel like a bug pinned to the wall.

"Robin, I just wanted you to know how sorry I am."

"Is that all?"

"Robin, don't be like this. Don't let those-- don't let them get to you."

"It's too late, Elizabeth. I'm sorry to say they did get to me. But don't worry. I'm fine now."

Suddenly Jessica came through the doors and seeing them, hurried over. Her face was wreathed with sympathy.

"Robin," she gushed. "Oh, I'm so happy to see you! I want to tell you ..."

Jessica's words evaporated on her lips. Robin had walked away.

"Well, did you see that?" Jessica fumed. "Of all the ungrateful, impossible--! Elizabeth Wakefield, what are you smiling at!"