SVH07-Dear Sister (4 page)

She decided she had enough time to check in at
The Oracle
before her first class. As she walked into the cluttered newspaper office, Roger Collins, the good-looking young teacher who served as the paper's adviser, was relaxing over a cup of coffee. He looked up with a smile that quickly became a frown.

"Jessica, I certainly hope you're not here to tell me Elizabeth still isn't well enough to come to school."

"Mr. Collins, we just may have to get your eyes checked out," Elizabeth teased. "Don't you

recognize your ace reporter, the distinguished author of 'Eyes and Ears'?"

Mr. Collins's jaw dropped slightly. "Elizabeth?"

"Elizabeth," she confirmed, dropping gracefully into a chair.

"Well, maybe a little knock on the head would be good for all of us," he said. "You look wonderful, and I'm glad to have you back. We all missed you."

"You look pretty good, too," Elizabeth said. Every girl at Sweet Valley High would have agreed with her. Roger Collins wasn't the most popular teacher at school only because he was interesting in class. In fact, most of the girls would have loved a little after-class attention from this teacher.

"Believe it or not, Mr. Collins," Elizabeth continued, "I missed this dusty old room and all the last-minute deadline hysteria."

"Well, it's still here, exactly the way you left it." Then he turned serious. "Being in the hospital must have been a horrible ordeal," he said.

"Not all of it was bad." She gave him a dazzling smile. "Fowler Hospital has some fantastic-looking doctors and interns. And some of the nurses aren't at all bad, in case
you're
interested."

For the second time that morning, Mr. Collins's jaw dropped in surprise.

"Just a suggestion, Mr. Collins," Elizabeth said and grinned. "I'd better go now. I don't

want to be late for my first class. See you later!" And she was gone.

"See you. Welcome back,
Elizabeth?.
"
he questioned faintly.

Mr. Collins wasn't the only confused one at Sweet Valley High that day. Other teachers and many of the kids kept mistaking Elizabeth for Jessica. None of this bothered Elizabeth at all, but Jessica was beginning to have an identity crisis.

The rest of the week wasn't much different from that first day. Elizabeth didn't wear the green minidress again, but she showed up in one new outfit after another.

"Mom must have bought you an entire new wardrobe," Jessica said with a trace of envy.

"Just a few things I needed, Jess. And you're a fine one to talk. You've always wrangled more clothes out of her than I did."

"But you never wanted them," she pointed out.

"I do now."

Why don't I like the sound of that?
Jessica asked herself. The only thing that kept Jessica going that week was the thought of the pool party she and Elizabeth were throwing on Saturday night.

She spent Saturday afternoon at the beach, playing volleyball with the kids, working on her tan, and feeling sorry for everyone who didn't live in Southern California. She was also

feeling sorry for Todd Wilkins, who wasn't having any fun at the beach.

"I thought Liz would be coming with you today, Jess."

"She's home resting up for tonight's party. She's still kind of weak, you know."

"Oh."

"Why the long face, Todd?"

Todd squinted up at the bright sun for a moment, then shrugged his broad shoulders. "I just never seem to get a chance to be alone with Liz. Every time I've seen her this past week, she's been too busy to talk."

"Well, she
is
busy, for heaven's sake. Liz has a lot of catching up to do."

"I guess you're right, but I wish--"

Jessica shook her head in exasperation. "Of course I'm right. You'll have plenty of time to be alone with her tonight."

The thought of being alone with Elizabeth brought a smile to Todd's face. "Yeah, tonight will be great."

Jessica hummed happily as she came into the kitchen late that afternoon. Alice and Ned Wakefield would be out the rest of the day and evening but had given their daughters special permission to have a party without their supervision. "We know we can trust you," they'd said.

Jessica was wondering whether she should go up and wake Elizabeth when the phone rang.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Jess, it's me."

"Liz? I thought you were upstairs."

"I'm at the mall, Jess. Please don't be mad, but I remembered something vitally important I had to do."

Jessica drummed her fingers impatiently on the counter as she listened. "You're at the mall? I'm not mad, Liz, but you're supposed to be up in your room resting for the party."

"I'll be home soon, I promise!"

"How soon, Liz? There's a lot of work to be done before the kids get here." The fingers were still drumming.

"Not to worry, Jess. I'll be there in a flash. Why don't you start things?" And the line went dead.

"Well, how do you like that? She wants
me
to start the work!"

Four

Jessica kept telling herself she shouldn't be upset with Elizabeth. After all, she thought, Elizabeth was just getting back on her feet. So, OK, she had left her with all the work of setting up for the party. "Listen, Jessica Wakefield," she lectured herself, "haven't you ever ducked out on work and left Elizabeth to do it?" She sighed and got out the onion soup mix to make the dip.

Actually, that was just the trouble. Normally it would have been Jessica calling from the mall to say she'd be late and for Elizabeth to go ahead setting things up without her. This just was not like Elizabeth.

"Now, don't start creating a humungous, imaginary crisis over nothing," she cautioned herself aloud. "Knowing my sister, she might

even be picking up some wonderful surprise for the party."

Still, it nagged at her.

"Stop it," Jessica commanded herself. "If you don't make that dip, the kids will have to eat powdered soup mix." She giggled and kept working.

Jessica checked the pool, skimming out leaves and twigs, and made sure the chlorine level was right. She set out the chips and dip and lugged the ice chest filled with soda out onto the patio. Then she moved the stereo speakers.

Pausing to look in a mirror, she reacted with horror. "Yaaaaagh," she gagged, looking at her tangled hair and red, sweaty face.

That was the problem with doing all the work. You wound up red-faced, sweaty, cross, and tired. Jessica made one last circuit of the patio, going around the pool to check the little wrought-iron tables, and then raced inside to take a shower.

"Hey!" she yelled in surprise when she got upstairs. She heard the sound of the shower running. "Is that you, Liz?"

"In a minute," she heard floating out from the volcano of steam and froth in the shower.

"Well, how do you like
that?"
Jessica muttered. Elizabeth had come home, done nothing to help, and sailed into the shower first!

"Elizabeth Wakefield, you come out of there!" Jessica raged.

"What?" said Elizabeth, turning off the shower, wrapping a towel around herself, then jumping out and smiling radiantly at Jessica. "Isn't this going to be a great party?"

Jessica stood there glaring, but Elizabeth didn't seem to notice. She just skipped past and darted into her room, looking back out to say, "Hey, Jess, you'd better get a move on. You're an absolute mess."

Jessica threw up her hands, got undressed, then went into the shower.

By the time Jessica put on her ice-blue bikini for the pool party, Elizabeth was already out of her room.

"Liz," Jessica called out. "You there?" No answer.

Jessica checked herself out in the mirror, examining her slim, perfectly tanned figure and her smashingly daring bikini. She smiled. "Not bad," she murmured. The boys of Sweet Valley wouldn't have a chance that night.

By the time she came downstairs, the gang was already starting to arrive. Gathered around the pool were Cara Walker, Lila Fowler, and Enid Rollins, Todd Wilkins and Ken Matthews, the football captain, John Pfeifer from
The Oracle
,
and even crazy Winston Egbert with his new girlfriend, Mandy Farmer. They were all standing around somebody near the diving board, somebody who had their undivided attention.

Jessica heard a provocative, flirtatious laugh

rise from the circle of boys. "That's
my
laugh," she whispered, confused. But it was Elizabeth doing the laughing.

Jessica strolled over for a closer look, and her eyes almost popped out. It was Elizabeth, all right, but she wasn't wearing her old swimsuit. She looked simply sensational in a brand-new, very revealing green bikini. It sure wasn't Elizabeth's usual style.

It wasn't only the new bikini, which Elizabeth had bought at the mall while Jessica slaved away like Cinderella. No, it was something in the way Elizabeth moved among the awed guys. She was holding a platter of chips and dip, and as she turned between Ken Matthews and John Pfeifer, she treated each of them to dazzling smiles.

Jessica sensed someone standing beside her, and looking around, saw it was Todd. He was gazing at Elizabeth with an odd expression on his face. He looked at Jessica. She looked at him. They glanced back toward Elizabeth.

"Well, I guess she's feeling better," Todd said with an effort, looking for something positive in this strange behavior.

"If she felt any better, she'd be orbiting the moon," muttered Jessica.

But Jessica couldn't really complain. She was glad to see Elizabeth enjoying herself so much. The party was a blazing success, largely because of Elizabeth's radiant performance. She

picked out the music, insisted on dancing with every boy, and kept up a nonstop chatter that the guys found fascinating.

Jessica and Todd stood by the patio doors drinking sodas and watching the new firefly of the Wakefield family.

Todd sighed. "It's terrific to see her so happy," he said, though his hopes of being alone with Elizabeth were rapidly disappearing.

"Yeah. She's so happy she doesn't notice we're out of chips, ice cubes, and soda," Jessica said.

It was weird. At parties Jessica was always the one who whirled and sparkled while Elizabeth kept the food coming. Now Jessica was doing all the work.

Just then Winston Egbert came up. "Kind princess, something to wet my parched throat before I expire, please! And a drink for my lady."

Jessica felt a curious twinge of jealousy. She knew Winston had been crazy about
her
since grade school, and usually she couldn't be bothered with him. But tonight was different. He was just about the only boy at the party
not
hanging all over Elizabeth. There was only one problem. He wasn't paying attention to anyone except Mandy.

"Hang in there, Win. I'll get more soda for you and Mandy," Jessica said, heading back toward the house.

When Jessica returned, she spotted Elizabeth

standing in front of Ken Matthews, gazing soul-fully into his eyes, as though hypnotized by whatever magic words he was saying. When she got close enough, she heard their conversation with amazement.

"I was just telling my father the other day, Ken Matthews knows all there is to know about football."

"Well ..." Ken blushed.

"Oh, yes, you do, Ken. Why, I bet we'll see you out there playing with the Rams in a few years."

Jessica stood there, holding the tray of soda cans. Elizabeth Wakefield playing up to Ken Matthews? Impossible!
She's just being friendly, just being a good
hostess, Jessica told herself.
So what if she's having more fun than I am? She deserves it.
Jessica put the tray on a table and walked over to where Todd was sitting alone.

"Jess, have you been watching Liz?" he said cautiously. "Does she seem different to you?"

"What? No," said Jessica. "She seems really terrific tonight."

"Yeah, terrific with everybody but me."

"You're jealous!" she accused. "And you're mad because she's having a fantastic time, and the two of us are just--"

"Yes, Jess, the
two
of us. It occurs to me that you're just a little miffed at your sister for stealing your usual place in the spotlight."

"Todd, really, you can be an awful nerd sometimes," she said and stalked away.

Todd was wrong, she told herself. She wasn't the sort of person who always had to be the center of attention, was she? And neither was Elizabeth--at least not before that night.

Things began adding up in a way Jessica didn't like. But there it was. Elizabeth had conveniently gone shopping at the mall instead of being home to help with the party preparations. The Elizabeth Jessica had always known would never have done that. Elizabeth had told her she had something vitally important to do at the mall. And what was that? Buying a new bikini! Not only had she gotten out of setting up for the party, but she'd also sneaked home and into the shower right under her sister's nose. And finally, there was Elizabeth, looking sensational, flirting madly with every guy at the party.

Why, she's doing at least a hundred and thirty-seven things that I usually do,
Jessica raged inwardly.
At least, things I sometimes do. Once in a while
.

She was so busy thinking that she might actually have walked blindly into the pool if she hadn't bumped into Cara Walker.

Cara turned, saw the tray of sodas Jessica was carrying, and took a can.

"Well," said Cara, looking over her shoulder toward the other end of the swimming pool, where Elizabeth was surrounded by five guys,

"would you check out Miss Butterfly of the Year?"

"What kind of a crack is that?" Jessica snapped. "Isn't my sister allowed to have a good time?"

Cara apologized quickly. "I'm sorry, Jess. I didn't mean anything by it. It's just that I've watched you in action with guys and--"

"What?"

Cara's face turned beet red. Her apology was only making things worse, and she knew Jessica was getting mad at her. "Jess, you always know the right thing to do around guys. You're really terrific in everything, especially cheer-leading, and you're a marvelous dancer, and you--"